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Briefing Notes: The Prevalence of Mental Health Issues in Children and Youth Involved with Child Welfare Services in Ontario
Get PDFThis paper examines the prevalence of mental health issues among children and youth served by child welfare services in Ontario and reviews academic literature, agency reports, and newspaper articles on the topic. The prevalence of mental health issues among young people involved with child welfare services is due not only to individual and family difficulties, but also to structural issues within the service sectors. Statistics illustrate a severe lack of accessible and timely services in both the child welfare and the children’s mental health sectors. Inadequate access to services for young people involved in the child welfare system is considered in relation to neoliberal policy development, social stigma, the Children and Family Services Act, and the experiences reported by families and service providers. Involvement with child welfare agencies, mental health, and structural factors such as poverty, racism, and income inequality, are interrelated. Because these factors have been linked to child maltreatment, providing timely mental health services for children and families involved in the child welfare system is especially important
Understanding Monosodium Glutamate: Exploring Food Discourse and Its Social Implications
Get PDFThis paper examines some of the mainstream discourse surrounding the substance monosodium glutamate (MSG). While the use of additives and preservatives in foods is of legitimate concern, it is arguable that the substance MSG is poorly understood, and has become vilified despite a lack of sound scientific evidence. Consequently, foods utilizing the flavour enhancer may be deemed inferior and presented in a negative way in mass media. This vilification, it is argued, reinforces food classism and assumptions about race
Claws of Catharsis: The Food Narrative of Lobster Eating
Get PDFWhen it comes to eating meat, humans employ many techniques to distance themselves from the animal, or the animal from the meat, in order to mask the reality of eating a once-living being. However, the practice of eating lobster is a special occasion in which many North Americans seem to set aside wilful blindness in order to indulge in their gustatory desires. How do urban meat eaters rationalize eating lobster when the distance that they have created between themselves and the animal, and the animal and the meat, has collapsed? By analyzing the common techniques used to assuage guilty feelings when eating meat and demonstrating how eating lobster, like most cruel foods, intentionally defies those conventions, I explore humans’ need to create a harsh and definite distinction between human and animal. This analysis contributes to the study of animals in human cultures, and how perceptions of the animal both crystallize and confound our understanding of the human. It is through the practice of lobster eating that humans reassert their dominance over animals while simultaneously indulging in animal-like behaviour. The pleasure of lobster eating exists within the contradiction of ignoring, yet acknowledging, not only a lobster’s humanity, but a human’s animalness
Road Kill at the Leslie Street Spit: Assessing the Road Mortality Patterns in Toronto’s Urban Wilderness (abstract)
Get PDFThe presence of roads is a necessary component of urban life, but the manner in which the urban road network affects the surrounding natural environment—and, more specifically, the urban wildlife—is not often considered. The danger posed to wildlife in urban environments by means of vehicle‐related fatalities is prevalent, even in areas of urban wilderness such as the Leslie Street Spit (the Spit) in Toronto, Ontario. The rate at which some species are killed on urban roads can be catastrophic to the population and possibly lead to extirpation. The goal of this study is to identify patterns of road mortality and, ultimately, to contribute data for effective mitigation strategies to reduce the instances of road kill at the Spit. The study area was divided into four sections and, from May to August 2011, the location and species of road kill found were recorded and mapped. The total count of road mortalities was 96, with snakes accounting for 71%, followed by birds (18%), amphibians (7%), and mammals (4%). The two sections of the study area with the highest vehicle traffic accounted for the majority (61%) of road mortalities. Temporal differences by taxonomic group were observed; for example, the mortality of snakes peaked in June, and that of birds in July and August. Overall, the results show that snakes are disproportionately affected by the presence of vehicles on the roads at Toronto’s Leslie Street Spit and that the areas of increased traffic are also areas of increased mortality for the wildlife in this urban wilderness area
Racism and Discrimination: The Manifestation and Cycle of Inequalities and Their Role in the Increasing Rates of HIV and AIDS in Toronto’s Jane-Finch Neighbourhood (abstract)
Get PDFSocio-political and economic factors such as poverty, unemployment, and poor health status have played a crucial role in increasing the rate of HIV/AIDS within the Afro-Black and Caribbean (ABC) community in Toronto, Canada. More importantly, these factors stem from a perpetual cycle of systemic and institutional marginalization rooted in a colonial legacy of racial oppression. In this paper, I argue that these processes of marginalization highlight and reinforce ties to colonialism that continue to reify the normalization of whiteness as the dominant ideology in Canada. I suggest that, despite resistance to racial oppression, such practices persist as a mechanism to protect and justify white privilege within Canadian society
New Production in Old Spaces: Deindustrialization and the rise of the micro-enterprise economy in Toronto’s Junction Triangle
Get PDFoai:yourreview.journals.yorku.ca:article/40300Pockets of deindustrialized facilities in downtown areas made redundant by the relocation of manufacturing and processing industries can provide built-form opportunities for new economic purposes. Exploratory fieldwork in Toronto’s Junction Triangle neighbourhood reveals a collection of old industrial spaces that have been reclaimed by an assortment of entrepreneurial micro-enterprises that provide replacement employment and economic value. This micro-enterprise economy is elevated by its locational advantage, serving high-end consumption goods, services, and experiences to a gentrified urban population. The mixed-method research findings serve as a case study for the protection of industrial facilities and their potential ongoing role in the urban economy
Coriolanus, Friendship, and Politics (abstract)
No full textThe Shakespearean play Coriolanus is based on the real-life Roman leader Caius Marcius, who leads his troops to victory against the Volscian city of Corioles. Using Shakespeare's tragedy as the primary source for my analysis, I argue that the poem recited by the Volcan general Tullus Aufidius (4.5. 1473-74), Coriolanus’s rival, reflects the essential characteristics of friendship as defined in the classical world. In this text, friendship, a key element in politics, is connected to the theme of sponsorship. To analyze the theme of friendship in this play, I researched scholarly resources related to both classical and contemporary perspectives of friendship. I conclude that Aufidius’s speech connotes friendship through flattery, frankness, and virtuous conduct
Climate Change in Ontario: Assessment, Efficiency of Green Policies, and Optimal Environmental Stability
Get PDFOntario possesses the technological and financial resources to address climate change. Yet, the Province has been unable to formulate coherent policies to significantly reduce emissions and adopt an environmentally friendly approach to this issue. This paper analyzes the response of the government to climate change and the barriers preventing efficient policy implementation in Ontario. The analysis draws from journal articles, governmental publications, and independent reports. It examines the effectiveness of public authorities to implement environmental policy. More precisely, this research points out the relationship that the Government of Ontario has developed with environmental issues. This essay reveals the challenges relating to policy implementation, for poor or mixed results have been achieved. This difficulty in achieving clear results is not a problem of policy implementation, but rather one of political will and accountability. The research highlights a persistent conflict between short-term and long-term goals. To address climate change efficiently, our current mode of governance needs to be reformed. This paper closes with a proposed solution to the current precarious state of climate change policy implementation in Ontario through a new method of environmental stewardship
A Comparison of “Dude” with “Man” in Spoken Discourse (abstract)
No full textHow does the discourse patterning of two French-speaking twins in interaction with their mother evolve over a period of four years, as they grow up in the context of English-speaking Toronto? This paper describes the current phase of an ongoing research project on speech analysis, led by Professors J. Benson and W. Greaves (York University, Glendon College) and carried out by the Systemic Functional Linguistics Research Group, of which I am a member. The purpose is to study the interaction among languages or language varieties. In this phase of the project, we catalogue the video tapes of the twins speaking, which constitute our primary data, and transform them into a linguistic corpus by transcribing them in alignment with sound files, using the speech analysis tool PRAAT, a freeware program for analyzing acoustics. The next phase will consist of analyzing the twins’ speech using the systemic functional linguistic network developed by Eggins and Slade (1997) and the computer program Corpus Tool, developed by Michael O’Donnell. At this interim phase of the research project, conclusions are not yet available
