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Examines Canadian educational systems as they reduced Indian students' self-esteem. Traces history of systematic degradation of Native culture through educational systems since 1600s. Beginning in late 1970s, intervention by Indian parents and tribal elders has led some Indian communities to operate their own school systems. (TES)

Hazing rituals in sport commonly involve coercive sexual acts. However, sexually violent hazing is rarely taken seriously by law enforcement and the criminal justice system in Canada. This paper examines sexually violent hazing in Canadian sport within the broader context of Canadian criminal sexual assault law. Using unobtrusive methods, the paper examines 12 cases of sexually violent hazing in Canadian sport to reveal what it can entail, who it commonly involves, and how sport leagues and the Canadian legal system often fail to adequately respond. Through an abductive analysis of this unobtrusive data, and drawing on theoretical work on masculinities and Erving Goffman's concept of total institutions, the paper argues that sexually violent hazing occurs in sport not purely for the purposes of teambuilding, as it is commonly understood, but also to establish and reaffirm hierarchies of masculinity within the total institution of sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asserts that secluded nature of homosexual bar and its importance as social center is one example of how lifestyle may contribute to alcohol and drug problems of homosexuals. Describes what aspects of lifestyle and social control must be taken into account when intervening into such problems. (Author)

While it is clear from a small body of scholarly literature that sport and physical activity play important roles in the daily lives of many inmates in diverse prison contexts around the world, there remains relatively little research that sociologically explores the significance of these physical practices in correctional environments. This paper helps to address this gap by examining one of the key tensions in prison sport: its deployment by corrections policymakers and administrators as a form of social control and its simultaneous use by prisoners as a vehicle for resistance and subversion. Situating the research in Goffman’s concept of the total institution, the paper explores how prisoners, though stripped of many resources for self presentation and collective subversion, refashion sport activities, materials, and spaces to their own purposes – and, in doing so, how they resist, in a limited fashion, the prison’s social control aims. More broadly, these findings point to the potential social significance of sport and physical activity as vehicles for the limited expression of agency in situations of extreme deprivation or imposing disciplinary regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most people accused of a crime are released into the community pending the resolution of their charges. To manage perceived risk, conditions of release on bail modify and control behaviour while providing a mechanism and justification for state monitoring. Drawing on 120 interviews with accused people in Canada this paper develops a typology to theorize how bail is experienced by accused, providing a framework for understanding what motivates accused to comply or violate their bail conditions and what impact conditioning has on their lives. Our analysis reveals insights into how accused present themselves to the court, navigate conditions of release and evaluate being conditioned in the community under the threat of further criminalization. Consistent with Yule et al. (2023), accused report a complex, variegated experience of social control in the community prior to conviction. Insights from participants suggest that bail is part of a broader criminal court process, that differentiates and marks accused (Kohler-Hausmann, 2018) who lack the requisite docility and discipline as risky and requiring more intensive conditioning and monitoring. • Drawing on 120 interviews with accused people in Canada this paper develops a typology to theorize how bail is experienced by accused, providing a framework for understanding what motivates accused to comply or violate their bail conditions and what impact conditioning has on their lives. • Accused report a complex, variegated experience of social control in the community prior to conviction. • How accused respond to being conditioned and demonstrate their amenability determines if and how much more (if any) conditioning and sanctioning is needed. • Reflecting on their presentation of self, experiences in the pre-trial process and impressions of the system, participants speak to themes of docility and discipline, bail as punishment and release as being better than detention. • The bail process is punishment's testing ground. Bail is part of a broader criminal court process, that differentiates, and marks accused (Kohler-Hausmann, 2018) who lack the requisite docility and discipline as risky and requiring more intensive conditioning and monitoring. • The lived experiences of accused reveals that bail conditions are ineffective tools of behaviour management, control, or change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly recognized that social exclusion is a dynamic process, but it operates within well-established political, social and economic structures. A breadth of empirical data is used to explore various dimensions of social exclusion and inclusion, including Australian, Canadian and European data. While all the articles explore different aspects of social exclusion, common themes emerge. All authors note the multi-dimensional nature of social exclusion. The importance of social networks in providing information and advice to the integration of young people is also identified. Common to all articles though is the firm belief that national governments should be centrally involved in tackling social exclusion. As currently formulated, the extent of government commitment to rural development programmes is questionable. These programmes tend to be short-term with insecure and limited funding. At any rate, the capacity of local partnerships to address issues of social exclusion is restricted. The responsibility for economic, social and civic inclusion of citizens rests primarily with national governments.

This paper discusses recent migration to North America with reference to the 1962 and 1967 Canadian immigration regulations and the 1965 United States Immigration and Nationality Act. Despite the similar emphasis on manpower and kinship criteria as the basis for the admission of immigrants, differences between Canada and the United States exist with respect to the importance of immigration for the respective economies, the organization of immigration, the formal regulations, and the size and composition of migrant streams. After an examination of the volume, origin, and occupational composition of immigration to Canada and the United States, flows between the two countries are studied. The paper concludes with a scrutiny of changes in immigration regulations which are pending in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional altruism in the form of a public-sector intervention and support for victims and social altruism generated by mutual aid and solidarity among citizens constitute a coming together in a crisis. This coming together and mutual support precipitate a decrease in crime rates during such an event. This paper presents an analysis of daily fluctuations in crime during the prolonged ice storms in Quebec, Canada, in January 1998 that provoked an electrical blackout. Of particular interest are the principal crisis-related influences on daily crime patterns. A first series of analyses examines the impact of altruistic public-sector mobilisation on crime. A significant decline in property crime rates was noticed when cheques were distributed to crisis victims in financial need in Montérégie, and hence they were attributable to public intervention (institutional altruism). Moreover, the rate of social altruism (financial donations), which was more substantial in adjoining rather than distant regions, was inversely proportional to crime rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harvey Graff in his 1979 study of literacy taught in common schools in mid-nineteenth century Canada, demonstrated that beliefs in the acquisition of literacy for upward mobility and economic success were a myth. Moreover, literacy instruction was promoted by educational reformers and manufacturers as a means of controlling the working class masses and instilling in them the traits, including thrift, order, and punctuality required for employment in factories. In this paper, we consider how this thesis can be adapted to describe contemporary national adult literacy policy discourse in Australia. The main drivers of Australia’s national policy are peak industry associations and skills agencies, and the human capital rationale for their promotion of literacy is derived largely from the powerful influence of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We critique this discourse on literacy through reference to studies which conceptualise literacy as social practices, including one recent Australian study of three manufacturing companies. We reinforce the claim that the literacy myth in relation to economic development continues in contemporary adult literacy policy, and we explain how the social control function of adult literacy education continues in the interests of industry elites and the capitalist relations of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Law & Society/Revue Canadienne Droit et Societe (University of Toronto Press) is the property of University of Toronto Press 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.)

Time series data of interest to social scientists often have the property of random walks in which the statistical properties of the series including means and variances vary over time. Such non-stationary series are by definition unpredictable. Failure to meet the assumption of stationarity in the process of analyzing time series variables may result in spurious and unreliable statistical inferences. This paper outlines the problems of using non-stationary data in regression analysis and identifies innovative solutions developed recently in econometrics. Cointegration and error-correction models have recently received positive attention as remedies to the problems of "spurious regression" arising from non-stationary series. In this paper, we illustrate the relevant statistical concepts concerning these methods by referring to similar concepts used in cross-sectional analysis. An historical example is used to demonstrate how such techniques are applied. It illustrates that "foreign" immigrants to Canada (1896-1940) experienced elevated levels of social control in areas of high police discretion. "Foreign" immigration was unrelated to trends in serious crimes but closely related to vagrancy and drunkenness. The merits of cointegration are compared to traditional approaches to the regression analysis of time series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the relationship between youth and the Canadian youth justice system within a Foucauldian framework. Of particular interest are the implications inherent in the interconnectedness of agencies and organizations of social control in the classification, detection, and treatment of youth in conflict with the law. I focus my analysis on the policies of one youth correctional facility located in the province of Saskatchewan to provide a practical application of Foucauldian theoretical concepts to an analysis of youth and formal social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon the research carried out for a study of human resource needs of social workers in Canada to make a SWOT analysis of social work education and the profession. Strengths that were identified included a holistic practice orientation; the linkage between theory and practice; regulation and certification; a generalist approach to practice; increased cultural relevance of social work education; high quality social work programs; a continued demand for social workers; and the values of the profession. Weaknesses included a lack of professional identification, or identity crisis; an inability to promote the profession; the diffuse knowledge base of the profession; conflict between the values of social action and social control; a lack of preparation to manage the stress of our work; insufficient aboriginal, visible minority and multicultural members of the profession; and for aboriginal people, that social work can be seen as a residual effect of colonization. Threats to the profession included a trend to neoliberalism; increasing identification of social workers with the bureaucracy; increasing managerialization; increased community responsibility for service delivery; and interdisciplinarity. Opportunities identified included design of cost effective programs which meet service user needs; exercise of responsibility for social advocacy; development of managerial competence in social workers; extension of job opportunities through privatization; and articulation of social work competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arguments of this paper are primarily methodological: that distinguishing characteristics of a group can be identified through an analysis of its social control activities; and that an examination of a group's control behaviours should begin with a study of its culture, with special attention to its central problematic. Elements within the culture of a group contain important sources of behavioural control and contribute to the nature of the social order within that group. It is within the culture that normal sanctions, and limitations upon sanctions are either inferred or are explicitly articulated. The mode of analysis is illustrated through the study of the culture of the La Leche League, a self-help organization for women who want to breastfeed their babies. The paper concludes that the League's success in encouraging its members to adapt a lifestyle with substantial costs can be attributed to some important characteristics of the content of its central problem and its articulation with other aspects of the culture. The data analyzed come from La Leche League publications; participant observation at League meetings; and interviews with League members. The research site is Ottawa, Ontario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Sociology is the property of Canadian Journal of Sociology 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.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Sociology is the property of Canadian Journal of Sociology 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.)

Urban centres in the US, Britain and Canada have responded to identified visible 'social problems' such addiction, mental health and homelessness by providing some supportive housing for the urban poor and marginalized. While some critics have questioned what supportive housing specifically entails in terms of the built environment, what remains under explored, though a growing area of concern, is the relationship between surveillance and supportive housing for urban residents identified as having addiction and mental health problems - a gap addressed in this paper. Drawing upon qualitative ethnographic observational data we examine some of the measures of control and coercion that are encroaching into social housing primarily established for poor and marginalized people with addiction and mental health problems in the urban centre of Vancouver, Canada. We witnessed three modes of regulation and control, that vary widely, among the residencies observed: physical surveillance technologies; site-specific modes of coercion; police presence and staff surveillance, which all together impact the everyday lives of residents living in low-income and supportive housing. We argue that supportive housing has the potential to provide its intended commitment - safe and secure affordable housing. However, owing to an (over)emphasis on 'security', the supportive housing we observed were also sites of social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of urban studies has scrutinised digital technologies and their proliferation, but rather little attention has been paid to databases. Furthermore, contributions to date have focused almost exclusively on how digital technologies interface with human populations in cities. By contrast, we draw attention to databases maintained by city governments that contain identifying information about pet dogs and their legal owners in cities. Methodologically, our study merges database ethnography with multi-species ethnography. Conceptually, we contend that "dog data" contribute to orderly conduct in urban space. This orientation to urban governance illustrates "trans-biopolitics," in the sense of socially-situated and technologically-mediated power relations that operate through multi-species entanglements. As such, this article extends the literature on (neoliberal) urban policing by providing a fine-grained analysis of how emergent forms of social control become palpable. In general terms, the adoption and use of digital technologies by city governments has increased their capacity to enforce rules and regulations. Overall, we find that the more legible dogs and their legal owners become in databases, the more governable both dogs and people become in urban life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dans cet article, on examine la relation entre l'autocontrôle, le contrôle social et la résistance au système scolaire. Les données d'étude sont tirées d'un sondage réalisé auprès d'étudiants des premier et deuxième cycles du secondaire en Alberta Les résultats de ce sondage penchent fortement en faveur de la General Theory of Crime (Gottfredson et Htrschi, 1990), selon laquelle la perte d'autocontrôle est le prédicteur le plus sûr de tous les types de résistance Les résultats soutiennent l'hypothèse voulant que, si le lien entre classe sociale (ou bien genre ou appartenance ethnique) et résistance est ténu (au Canada du moins), c'est peut-être parce que les mécanismes d'autocontrôle qui suscitent ou rejettent le phénomène de résistance ne sont pas intimement liés à la classe sociale (ou bien au genre ou à l'appartenance ethnique) Toutefois, le sexe, l'âge, la classe sociale et l'appartenance ethnique restent étroitement liés a certains ou à l'ensemble des aspects de la résistance au système scolaire même en présence d'autocontrôle Les conclusions de la General Theory of Crime et leurs répercussions sont également abordées ici [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a risk society discourse and its utility for critical criminological research in Canada. The risk information superstructure might be considered amoral because it is often digital and impersonal. To the contrary, these practices have been described by risk theorists as highly moral because they reflect the institutionally encoded norms and expectations of society. Risk also becomes symbolic. Central to risk society theory is its perpetually escalating character. The actuarial forms endemic to a risk society are especially widespread throughout the criminal justice system. In the first instance, governmentality means that penal institutions and policing organizations become fragmented as the monopoly of the state in matters of social control is diffused amongst a wide constellation of public and private sectors. Evidence of this can be found in the privatization of corrections and policing, where insurance practices are ordered in very similar ways. That is, the actuarial logics of social order are just as likely to migrate from the public to the private sphere as they are to be adopted by public agencies at the behest of private institutional needs. It is argued that many of the mobilizing logics of the public police are borrowed directly from private security.

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Criminology is the property of University of Toronto Press 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.)

This article examines the intersections of the child protection, immigration and criminal systems, and the carceral logics that undergird all three systems. Taking seriously Patricia Hill Collins' (2017) call to analyze "intensified points of convergence" (p. 1464), we analyze the role of social work in perpetuating carceral systems and the tools that feminist social work provides for disrupting them. Using a case analysis of a foster child in Halifax, Canada, who in 2018 was faced with deportation after social workers failed to secure his citizenship status, we argue that a pipeline exists between child protection and a growing "crimmigration" system. The carceral logics of this pipeline not only draw from anti-Black, Islamophobic, and settler colonial histories of oppression, but they also position certain noncitizen families as unassimilable and requiring of state intervention rather than social supports. With this carceral pipeline in mind, we then draw from feminist anticarceral and intersectional approaches to consider a range of resistance strategies. Ultimately, we argue for a transformative justice approach that goes beyond reforming the pipeline and instead takes seriously the insights of abolitionist movements as an alternative to purely reformist approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence suggests rapid health decline among temporary migrant workers but there is limited knowledge about their mental health. This study explored live-in care givers’ (LCs) mental health and its determinants. Using a mixed methods design, a purposeful sample of 30 LCs was recruited. Data were collected through a selfcompleted questionnaire. A third of participants reported their mental health as poor or fair. Almost half experienced major depression. The poor mental health was associated with the average working hours and living accommodation. The average resiliency scores was moderately high and appeared to function as a protective factor against mental illness. Our findings suggest LCs are at risk of compromised mental health associated to their substandard working and living conditions. These conditions originates from violation of employment contracts, unfair employment practices, and the lack of enforcement of LCs’ legal and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Historical Review is the property of University of Toronto Press 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.)

Objective: Road crashes are considered as the eighth leading causes of death. There is a wide disparity in crash severity and law enforcement efficiency among low-, medium-, and high-income countries. It would be helpful to review the crash severity trends in these countries, identify the vulnerable road users, and understand the law enforcement effectiveness in devising efficient road safety improvement strategies.Method: The crash severity, fatality rate among various age groups, and law enforcement strategies of 10 countries representing low-income (i.e., India and Morocco), medium-income (i.e. Argentina, South Korea, and Greece), and high-income (i.e., Australia, Canada, France, the UK, and the United States) are studied and compared for a period of 5 years (i.e., 2008 to 2012). The critical parameters affecting road safety are identified and correlated with education, culture, and basic compliance with traffic safety laws. In the process, possible road safety improvement strategies are identified for low-income countries.Results: The number of registered vehicles shows an increasing trend for low-income countries as do the crash rate and crash severity. Compliance related to seat belt and helmet laws is high in high-income countries. In addition, recent seat belt- and helmet-related safety programs in middle-income countries helped to curb fatalities. Noncompliance with safety laws in low-income countries is attributed to education, culture, and inefficient law enforcement.Conclusion: Efficient law enforcement and effective safety education taking into account cultural diversity are the key aspects to reduce traffic-related injuries and fatalities in low-income countries like India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bucharest University Annals - Law Series is the property of CH Beck Publishing House 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.)

Based on the British choralism movement of the nineteenth century, the historical legacy of music education in Canada and the US is one of social control. By the twentieth century, North American music educators used choral singing and music listening to teach music literacy skills to groups assumed to be in need of ‘improvement’: the working class, immigrants, and school-age children. Deploying so-called good music to improve moral character and instill national pride, their goal was to create docile citizens content with their place in society and committed to hard work. Exclusions, stereotyping, and arbitrary standards in music education still construct acceptable musics and musical behaviours along lines of race, gender, class, and sexuality that support the status quo and maintain social order. Uprooting music education practices from these manifestations of the Deleuzian refrain that constrains the profession opens spaces for transformative musical and educational potentialities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research suggests that police officers may use more than one style of law (therapeutic, conciliatory, compensatory, penal) and that the quantity of law applied may also vary within an encounter in order to maintain order. The implication is that police decision-making varies, and is, to some extent, case dependent. The research objective is to investigate the extent to which principles from Black’s (1976) theory of law are applicable to police decision-making with apprehended youth in Canada. The findings suggest that police decision-making is a dynamic process that is a progression in the application of formal social control from least to most intrusive of personal liberties both in the quantity and style of law. The analysis reveals that the factors which affect police discretion can vary, in some circumstances, across physical space (urban, suburban, and rural communities). In addition, as informal mechanisms of social control weaken, the police use a higher quantity of law, be it penal, compensatory, conciliatory, or therapeutic. Specifically, the quantity and style of law is affected by the degree and nature of parental involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the historic antecedents of outreach nursing in Canada, going as far back as the Grey Nuns in what is now Quebec. It attempts to place modern-day street nursing in a historical context, which includes Nightingale, Wald, the early Victorian Order of Nurses, and the social reform movements of the early 20th century. The article critiques the involvement of nursing in less than virtuous aspects of social control with respect to impoverished and otherwise marginalized groups. The article goes on to trace the origins of modern Canadian street nursing in three cities: Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. It uses both a search of the nursing literature and, because much of this history is undocumented, oral history and anecdotal information as well. It critiques nursing's traditional avoidance of political action and calls upon modern-day nurses to support and educate one another to engage in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice is the property of University of Toronto Press 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.)

This article proposes a theoretical approach to illicit-drug policy that emphasizes politics and institutions, as an alternative to dominant perspectives emphasizing social control. After revealing conceptual links between drug-control policies and those of social provision, I describe a typology of drug policies based on the division of labor among the institutions responsible for implementing the legislated agenda. I then develop a theoretical argument that approaches drug policy as social policy, employing concepts of institutional reach and policy linkages. In the concluding section I use this approach to compare drug policies in the United States and Canada after 1980. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Criminology is the property of University of Toronto Press 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.)

This article focuses on wage employment and cultural retention in the case of a Canadian Inuit. The traditional culture of the Inuit was ill-adapted in many ways to the kind of industrialization experience common throughout the western world. In pre-contact times Inuit in the Central Canadian Arctic lived in very small bands which fluctuated in size as individual family groups joined forces, or struck off on their own. There was no institutionalization of social controls, or even of leadership beyond the role of the angakok, the religious shaman, and a general tendency to follow the suggestions of the most successful hunter. During the late 1950's, the Canadian government embarked upon a comprehensive series of programs designed to improve the quality of Inuit life, and to eventually make the main streams of Canadian society more accessible to the Inuit. Despite the many and massive changes that the Inuit have experienced in the past 20 to 30 years, it should not be inferred that the consequence has been the virtual destruction of the traditional culture.

This article builds upon Michel Foucault's fleeting observation that 'the state consists in the codification of a whole number of power relations' and that 'a revolution is a different type of codification of these same relations' (Held et al., 1983, pp. 312-3). Specifically, the article uses the case of Canada to argue that distinct state forms rest on particular meso-discourses which inform a logic of governance, historical configurations of the public and private and gendered citizenships. The meso-discourses of separate spheres, liberal progressivism and performativity (the logics of governance for the laissez-faire state, the Keynesian welfare state and the neo-liberal state, respectively) have coded and recoded gendered citizenships, thereby providing women and men with differential access to the public sphere and to citizenship claims. The neo-liberal state's meso-discourse of performativity is especially challenging for women and all equity-seeking groups because it prescribes the ascendency of market relations over political negotiation or ethical considerations, as well as the attrition of social and political citizenship rights. Social citizenship is being eclipsed by market citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Sociology is the property of Canadian Journal of Sociology 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.)

Background: Direct to consumer offerings of unproven stem cell interventions (SCIs) is a pressing scientific and policy issue. According to media reports, providers of SCIs have emerged in Canada. This study provides the first systematic scan of Canadian providers and associated trends and claims.Methods: The study sample consisted of 15 websites retrieved from a Google™ keyword search. The websites were assessed by a rater using a peer-reviewed coding frame that queried treatment location, stem cell offerings, treatment claims, supporting evidence, and legal and regulatory compliance. A second rater reviewed a subset of the websites for purposes of inter-rater reliability. Disagreements between raters were resolved by consensus. Data collected by the raters was analyzed in SPSS.Results: Physicians are the dominant treatment providers in Canada. Providers operate in urban and semi-urban areas in the most populous provinces. SCIs provided are mainly autologous adult stem cells for multiple conditions including musculoskeletal disorders, spinal cord injury (SCI) and diabetes. Efficacy and benefits of treatment are prominently and positively portrayed, while risks are not mentioned or portrayed as trivial. Regulatory concerns are not discussed.Conclusions: The involvement of physicians in promoting and providing unproven and unapproved SCIs raises significant ethical, legal and regulatory concerns. Treatment claims and trends appear to contravene applicable professional standards, statutory obligations, and consumer protection laws. While the number of providers observed is still marginal, urgent and proactive regulatory response is needed to prevent proliferation of a potentially exploitative and harmful market for unproven SCIs in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]