University of Toronto: Journal Publishing Services
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Instructions have been provided: Addressing Indigenous-Specific Racism and Implementing Foundational Obligations to Indigenous Peoples
No full textIntroduction: Growing calls to recognize racism as a determinant of health underscores the need for evidence-based tools addressing Indigenous-specific racism in health services, particularly within public health. Indigenous resistance to genocide and assimilation in Canada has led to the current era of truth and reconciliation. Since 2015, a series of national and regional commissions and inquiries have led to the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into law, as well as over 400 recommendations for actions to eradicate Indigenous-specific racism. We call these our “Foundational Obligations to Indigenous Peoples.” This study introduces a tool designed to measure and address these Foundational Obligations, aiming to confront the unmet responsibility public health has to eradicate Indigenous-specific racism.
Methods: Within BC’s Office of the Provincial Health Officer (OPHO), we developed a mixed-method tool “Action on Foundational Obligations to Indigenous Peoples Self-Assessment," where participants quantitatively assess their engagement with reports and recommendations related to Indigenous rights and reconciliation. Qualitative insights delve into the reasoning behind rankings, identifying barriers, facilitators, and support needs for upholding Foundational Obligations.
Results: The baseline survey in June 2022 revealed substantial variability in awareness and action across the OPHO. Seven pragmatic themes emerged from qualitative data that inform the work to arrest white supremacy & Indigenous-specific racism.
Knowledge Translation: To address the gaps in knowledge, a workshop series— \u27Foundational Obligations Series\u27— was created to educate staff on essential reports, acts, and inquiries that offer clear guidance for addressing both Indigenous-specific racism and white supremacy.
 
A Media Ecologist/Physicist’s Take on Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si: An Ecumenical Approach to a Dialogue of Science and Religion Robert K.
No full textA Media Ecologist/Physicist’s Take on Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si: An Ecumenical Approach to a Dialogue of Science and ReligionRobert K
Canadian Postsecondary Student Perspectives on Mental Health: Surveying Treatment, Education, and Access
No full textBackground: Students entering post-secondary education face numerous life changes and challenges that increase their vulnerability to negative mental health outcomes. As such, we aimed to determine, from students’ perspectives, the greatest barriers they faced in accessing mental healthcare in Canada, particularly in relation to the Canadian healthcare system.
Methods: We performed a survey of open- and closed-ended questions querying 58 students at a large post-secondary institution in Western Canada on their mental health knowledge and perspectives of their own mental healthcare and barriers to accessing mental health resources.
Results: Findings demonstrated that stigma, a lack of mental health knowledge, cost, and social factors acted as barriers to help-seeking in post-secondary students. Older participants also demonstrated more confidence in mental health resources and their own mental health strategies, higher rates of positivity towards mental healthcare in the people close to them, and less concern in being stigmatized for mental healthcare use than younger participants.
Conclusions: Improving mental health education early in life shows promise at reducing many of the barriers students face in accessing mental healthcare
Money: The Common Denominator in a Multicultural Society
No full textCost-benefit analysis (CBA) has frequently been championed as an effective means of navigating policy decisions within multicultural societies characterized by disparate moral frameworks. By treating money as a universally recognized metric for value, CBA ostensibly circumvents the contention that arises from competing ethical and cultural perspectives. This paper examines the theoretical underpinnings of CBA and evaluates its implications for policymaking, with a specific focus on drug regulation in the United States. The first sections explore how moral pluralism can lead to policy deadlocks, highlighting the limitations of purely relativistic or purely moral approaches. Subsequent sections illustrate how CBA offers a seemingly objective standard—an approach that can insulate policymakers from partisan pressures while potentially mitigating inefficiencies. The discussion then considers the War on Drugs and historical prohibition movements, assessing how moralistic policies may have inadvertently fueled organized crime and produced counterproductive societal outcomes. In conclusion, it is argued that although CBA is not without shortcomings—particularly when confronting values that resist monetization—it remains a valuable analytical tool for constructing policy solutions in diverse societies. By centering on pragmatic, data-driven decision-making, CBA can provide clarity in debates that might otherwise be mired in conflicting moral imperatives
The Efficacy of Legal Mobilization Regarding Canada’s LGBTQ Social Movement and Success in Achieving Same-Sex Marriage
No full textLegal mobilization is a crucial mechanism for social change, shaping legal frameworks and influencing public discourse. This analysis explores its effectiveness through a literature review and a comparative case study — exploring the real-world implications of the legal mobilization debate. The first section engages with the scholarly debate between optimists, who regard legal mobilization as a catalyst for progress, and pessimists, who question its transformative potential. Key proponents, including Michael McCann, Celeste Arrington, and César Rodríguez-Garavito, emphasize both its direct legal effects and broader societal impact, while critics such as Gerald Rosenberg and Larry Savage argue that judicial decisions alone rarely lead to substantive change. The second section examines Vriend v Alberta (1998) and Reference re Same-Sex Marriage (2004), two landmark cases in Canada’s LGBTQ+ rights movement—rulings which secured legal protections and contributed to shifting public perceptions of same-sex equality. As a dynamic force shaping jurisprudence and public attitudes, legal mobilization reinforces its role as a powerful driver of social transformation
Strategic Adaptations in Intercompetitive Factional Violence: Exploring the Influence of Fragmentation Types in Secessionist Movements
No full textUsing case studies such as Irish Republican Army (IRA), Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), this paper analyzes the effects of schisms/splinters on inter-competitive violence, and decision-making within the context of secessionist movements. Schisms appear to result in strategies to do with negotiation and controlling resources while splinters lead to violent attempts to secure resources and survive. Overall, although fragmentation offers insight into the perceived level of importance of any given group, it also appears to be counterproductive to movements
Zygmunt Bauman’s Modernity and the Holocaust and the Residential Schools in Canada: A Bureaucratic Analysis
No full textPresently, the issue of the residential schools in Canada has gained traction due to its ‘civilizing’ process that has uniquely been identified as a ‘cultural genocide.’ The aim of this paper is to use the concepts outlined in Zygmunt Bauman’s Modernity and the Holocaust and apply them to the residential schools, not to make a comparison between the two, but rather to analyze how bureaucracy and its instruments made the ‘Indian problem’ completely ‘rational,’ just like how the Holocaust was ‘rational’ because the ‘Jewish problem’ was also seen as ‘rational.’ This essay surveys reports from the Department of Indian Affairs 1880 to 1919, to further expand on the use of bureaucracy in carrying out this ‘cultural genocide.’ This question also addresses a key issue: if the Holocaust was considered ‘modern’ because it came from ‘Enlightened’ thinking that made the ‘Jewish problem’ ‘rational,’ then can the residential schools and subsequent cultural genocide, also be described as a modern genocide?  
