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In the Winter of 2020, my introductory Canadian politics class started to develop its own online, collaboratively-built, open-access, introductory "textbook" on Canadian politics. Drawing on the principles of critical pedagogy, the assignment engages students in group work to generate plain-language primers that can connect with an audience beyond our classroom while contributing to knowledge-building in the field. Once submitted, students' work is compiled, edited and uploaded to the project website. Students have multiple opportunities to provide feedback about their experience and the project as a whole. Since the project was piloted in 2020, it has been used twice more in two Canadian politics classrooms, with plans for further expansion. This article chronicles the process of developing, revising, and expanding the project. It identifies the principles behind the assignment, and the challenges the project has faced so far. Further, drawing on scholarship demonstrating that colonialism, racism, and marginality remain peripheral to the study of Canadian politics, it imagines how a student-led, collaboratively-built online "textbook" might also work to contest the historic boundaries of the discipline.

Ann Denis pursued her career with the perspective that careful, well-researched knowledge about the status of women is critical to improving women's lives. Her scholarly work and activism reveal an [...]

In the winter of 2012, the students in the author's fourth-year seminar, The Politics of the Canadian Women's Movement, undertook the project of editing, updating, and expanding a number of Wikipedia articles, including the page on "Feminism in Canada." Though it often serves as a first point of reference for research on Canadian feminism, this Wikipedia page had long been underdeveloped, overlooking significant historical events, recent contributions, and the work of feminists outside of the English-speaking, white, middle-class mainstream. This article chronicles the theory behind and practice of doing this assignment with the author's students. The article begins by exploring the principles of feminist pedagogy, and how technologies like Wikipedia contest or support such principles. It then describes how she and her students undertook this project, followed by an assessment of the project's benefits and the challenges it raised. The article concludes by extending an invitation to feminist activists and academics to employ Wikipedia in their own classrooms, both as a means to realize feminist pedagogical goals and to improve Wikipedia's coverage of feminist issues.

The recognition of a health care service as medically necessary under the Canada Health Act is contingent on a variety of practical and political factors. This article examines how in vitro fertilization (IVF) came to be understood as a medically necessary service in Ontario, focusing on the establishment of public funding for one cycle of treatment. The article argues that the legitimacy of medical necessity in the contemporary period is tied to three interrelated factors: the recognition of a service as sufficiently "medical," as efficient and as urgent—that is, something to be funded now and not later. By applying this framework to the case of IVF in Ontario, the article demonstrates not only the ongoing malleability of medical necessity but also how the government of Ontario has mobilized the three aspects of medical necessity to make a case for the public funding of a highly contested health care service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice / Études Critiques sur le Genre, la Culture, et la Justice is the property of Mount Saint Vincent University 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 matter of 'abandoned embryos' arises when surplus IVF embryos are frozen and stored for later use. If the fertility clinic or storage facility in question does not have clear direction about what to do with these embryos, and/or payment for storage ceases, and/or the embryo providers cannot be reached, the embryos raise an ethical and practical challenge. On the one hand, there is a commitment to respect the autonomy of embryo providers to determine what should happen to their frozen embryos. On the other hand, there are weighty reasons why fertility clinics and storage facilities do not want responsibility, potentially in perpetuity, for other people's frozen embryos. This article examines the matter of 'abandoned embryos' - the emergence of the term, its use in policy and law, and its implications in the Canadian case. We demonstrate that despite an intricate legislative framework, there are important gaps that leave fertility clinics and storage facilities in the tenuous position of discarding 'abandoned embryos' without clear authorization, or storing them indefinitely. We argue that clarity in consent procedures coupled with flexible time limits on embryo storage provide an approach that can best serve the interests of all involved.