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British Columbia’s Carbon Tax
No full textA carbon tax, implemented in the Canadian province of British Columbia in 2008, is intended as an incentive to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, leading to a more sustainable future. The purpose of this project is to determine whether British Columbia’s carbon tax is an effective solution to rapidly rising carbon dioxide (CO2). This study applies Robert Gibson’s seven-part framework for analyzing environmental policies to the BC carbon tax. Results indicate that BC’s carbon tax is not a successful policy solution for decreasing CO2 emissions as it does not fully meet the requirements of Gibson’s framework
Combating Loneliness Amongst Seniors with Dementia
Get PDFLoneliness is defined as the subjective negative evaluation regarding the quality and the quantity of current relationships. The Canadian senior population (individuals aged 65 and over) has been rapidly increasing over the past century and now exceeds the population of children aged 14 and younger. With the aging of the Baby Boom generation, the number of seniors is estimated to be 25% of the population of Canada by 2036. Loneliness is frequently listed as a risk factor for advancing cognitive decline and is a very strong predictor of dementia, independent of other factors such as social isolation, depression, or living alone. This project aims to raise awareness and combat loneliness among seniors through health promotion strategies, including intergenerational programs, visits to retirement homes and schools, and stimulating activities to reduce the risk of cognitive decline
Exploring the Wind-Evoked Escape Response in Cockroaches
No full textThis paper explores the wind-evoked escape response behaviour in cockroaches through the lens of Tinbergen’s four questions: adaptation, phylogeny, mechanism, and ontogeny. Research for this project has been compiled through a literature review of scholarly articles. Research into adaptation (how the trait increases the fitness of the species) of behaviour serves the cockroach as it permits the creature to escape predators and survive. Examining the phylogeny (how a certain trait evolved) reveals that only some cockroaches have developed the specific response. Two potential theories were found. One postulates that the evolution of a thinner cuticle increased the need for the behaviour and the other attributes it to an evolution in wings. The mechanism of the behaviour (the underlying biological function) is widely understood through the numerous studies previously conducted. Examining the ontogeny of the behaviour (lifetime development) produced conflicting results. Some studies indicate that younger cockroaches have a stronger escape response while others state that it is older cockroaches. Further research needs to be conducted into the questions of phylogeny and ontogeny to better understand this behaviour
Save-a-Bear: Human Interactive Device, Addressing Accessibility, Emotional Care, and the Seriousness of Teaching CPR to Children, All in the Comfort of One’s Home
No full textThis project focused on the application of the interaction design process, design knowledge and skills to design interactions with a child-size manikin for children to learn the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) technique. Despite having numerous CPR manikins and feedback devices available on the market, very few are specialized in teaching children the essential skill. The interactions with the manikin should be designed to support haptic feedback to facilitate the children’s learning. The study focused on key factors that should be prioritized when developing a CPR manikin for children. The research was conducted as a group utilizing various methods, including primary/secondary, PACT, competitive analysis, and affinity mapping. Findings reveal that there is a need to address accessibility, emotional care, and the seriousness of teaching CPR.
This project led to the creation of Save-A-Bear. It is a portable and responsive CPR bear with compression and audio feedback that addresses accessibility, emotional care, and the seriousness of teaching CPR to children all in the comfort of a child’s home. Features that include an inbuilt speaker that plays 100 beats per minute (BPM) songs, tracks compressions by recording metrics on the app, is easily portable, and raises awareness of the importance of understanding CPR & first-aid practices. This device assists in the transition to remote learning through its physical and digital component and at-home training program. By creating this device, children will be well equipped with the skills to deal with any future medical emergencies, to take care of themselves, their loved ones, and the community
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Versus Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: Which One Is a Better Treatment Option for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
No full textIn the psychotherapy world, there is a debate over which therapy is the better treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of this evidenced-based project is to use research studies to identify which therapy is better to treat those suffering from PTSD. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) have both been considered as safe and effective treatments. Research evidence suggests that while CBT is somewhat more effective, it is a longer treatment and has significantly higher drop-out rates. Also, there are no CBT research studies with a control group in follow-up studies to determine the long-term effects of CBT. In contrast, EMDR is a preferred approach based on the higher efficacy, long-term therapeutic gains, short and fast treatment times and low drop-out rates. These factors provide an additional financial benefit to client populations that are only able to afford short-term therapy. More research with larger sample sizes is needed to better understand the treatment outcomes of both therapies. Future research should also focus on verifying if these treatments are effective across different cultures. Future directions also suggest that more practitioners need to be trained in order to make EMDR available to a variety of client populations
Why Do We Get the Urge to Squish Cute Things?
Get PDFPeople often express superficially aggressive behaviour such as squeezing, biting and crushing in response to cute things, a desire known as cute aggression. Since the origin of this term in 2013, there have only been a few academic papers on this topic. This scoping review gathers all the available literature to demonstrate what is known so far and the areas for further research. The topics explored include why we find things to be cute, the effect of cuteness on the brain, and how it overwhelms some to result in cute aggression. The literature suggests that when we see something with “baby-like” characteristics, such as big, wide-set eyes, chubby cheeks, and thick arms and legs—characteristics formally called “baby schema”—our minds interpret it as adorable. This releases a strong, positive emotional response by activating the brain’s reward system, which then motivates us to protect it. Those who experience cute aggression have an overwhelming amount of reward and emotion related brain activity in response to cute things. The findings suggest that cute aggression serves to prevent becoming overwhelmed with these strong, positive emotions by balancing them with negative expressions. Overall, cute aggression is deemed to dilute these strong emotions to aid in being a good caretaker. This topic holds clinical potential by studying how this phenomenon translates to those with disorders relating to reward and emotion. However, since this is a new area of research, it can benefit from large-scale direct replication studies before moving forward to its clinical applications
Éditorial. Frozen Chains of Childhood (2017)
No full textFrozen Chains of Childhood (2017)
Print on photopaper, 25”x15”
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The photograph Frozen Chains of Childhood was captured in 2017 after a January ice storm in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. The piece is a reflection on the residential school systems, in operation in Canada from 1831 to 1996. Enforced by the Canadian government and supported by the Catholic church, residential schools were designed to “kill the Indian in the child” by forcibly removing Indigenous children from their communities and placing them in these so-called schools. In 1920, Deputy Superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott details the schools’ intent: “Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department.”
According to the charitable organization Reconciliation Canada, there were over 130 residential schools in operation across the country. However, this number excludes day schools and other boarding schools that have not officially been categorized as residential schools, even though they too operated under a similar mission. It has been estimated that 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools and over 90% suffered severe physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse, resulting in intergenerational traumas still felt by many Indigenous families today.
Many children experienced malnutrition, diseases such as tuberculosis, and forced sterilization, and many were used in experimental trials without parental consent. Research shows that malnutrition during childhood can cause intergenerational health complications, as seen in the higher rates of diabetes in Indigenous communities. Likewise, studies demonstrate that childhood abuse and trauma have a lasting impact on a person and can extend through multiple generations.
Like the swing in the cover photograph, many Indigenous children felt isolated, frozen, neglected, and immobile at these schools. They were trapped in these institutions and while some, like Chanie Wenjack, tried to run away, others could not. There was a 40–60% mortality rate of children in residential schools (Reconciliation Canada). As I write this editorial, over ten thousand children in unmarked graves at residential school sites across North America have been found, bodies recovered, and spirits beginning to return home. For years, Survivors have been speaking about these graves, but it is only now that the truth is being confronted and shared widely for Canadians to reflect upon. With this truth comes pain, but also healing. As the bodies of these children are found and returned home, the truth behind the residential school system becomes widely known and the frozen chains of childhood begin to melt.
It is important to note that this truth is not simply a dark chapter in Canadian history, but rather an ongoing chapter. Indigenous children are still being taken away from their families—first into residential schools, then through the Sixties Scoop, and now through the foster care system. Census Canada data (2016) shows that over 52% of children in foster care nationwide are Indigenous, even though Indigenous children make up only 7.7% of the country’s child population under the age of 15. Today, there are more Indigenous children in care than at the height of residential school system. Although the last federally run residential school closed in 1996, the systems that created them are alive and well.
The Chief Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Senator Murray Sinclair, once said, “education has gotten us into this mess, and education will get us out” (Senate of Canada Debates, 2017). It is through education that I have begun to melt the chains of my community and unpack my own identity as a Cree-Métis woman who came through the public education system without ever learning about residential schools. It was not until the third year of my undergraduate degree, when I chose to enroll in an Indigenous Health and Healing course with Professor Jon Johnson (York University, Toronto), that this truth was shared with me. Until then, I did not understand why members of my family had kept our Indigenous identity a secret and felt compelled to pass as white, for the safety of themselves and their children. Learning the truth has forever changed my life. It has put me on a path of learning, unlearning, and relearning so that I can reclaim my culture and pass it on to future generations. Although it was not safe for my ancestors to be Indigenous, I hope that my future children can grow up in a world where it is not only safe, but celebrated.
—Marissa Magneson is a Cree-Métis artist, photographer, educator, and workshop facilitator. She is currently a doctoral student in the Faculty of Education at York University.Frozen Chains of Childhood (2017)
Photographie, imprimée sur papier photo, 25"x15"
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La photographie Frozen Chains of Childhood a été prise en hiver 2017 lors d’une tempête de glace à Barrie, Ontario, Canada. La photographie est une réflexion sur les systèmes des pensionnats indiens, actifs au Canada de 1831 à 1996. Mis en œuvre par le gouvernement canadien et soutenu par l’Église catholique, les pensionnats indiens ont été conçus afin de « tuer l’Indien au sein de l’enfant », en enlevant de force des milliers d’enfants Autochtones à leurs parents et en envoyant ces enfants à ces soi-disant écoles. En 1920, le directeur général adjoint du ministère des Affaires indiennes Duncan Campbell Scott explique le but de ces pensionnats : « Notre objectif est de continuer jusqu’a ce qu’il n’y ait plus un seul Indien au Canada qui n’ait pas été intégré à la société et qu’il n’y ait plus de question indienne ni de ministère des Affaires indiennes ».
Selon l’organisme de bienfaisance Reconciliation Canada, il y avait plus de 130 pensionnats indiens à travers le Canada. Or, ce nombre exclut les écoles de jour et les internats qui n’ont pas été classés dans la catégorie de pensionnats, bien qu’eux aussi avaient la même mission. On estime que 150,000 enfants Autochtones vivaient dans ces pensionnats, dont plus de 90 % ont subi des abus graves—physique, mental, émotionnel et sexuel—ce qui a entrainé un traumatisme intergénérationnel ressenti par de nombreuses familles Autochtones aujourd’hui.
Plusieurs enfants ont souffert de la malnutrition et des maladies telle que la tuberculose et plusieurs ont été soumis de force à la stérilisation aux pensionnats ou utilisés dans des épreuves expérimentales, sans le consentement de leurs parents. La recherche montre que la malnutrition enfantine peut mener à des complications de santé entre générations comme, par exemple, le fort taux de diabète que l’on voit chez les communautés Autochtones. De plus, les études démontrent que la violence physique et les traumatismes subis pendant l’enfance peuvent laisser une marque indélébile sur l’individu et se faire sentir sur de multiples générations.
Tout comme la balançoire dans la photographie de couverture, ces enfants Autochtones se sentaient isolés, gelés, négligés et immobilisés aux pensionnats. Ils étaient enfermés dans ces institutions et bien que quelques-uns comme Chanie Wenjack ont tenté de s’échapper, d’autres n’ont pas pu. Il y avait un taux de mortalité des enfants de 40–60 % dans les pensionnats indiens (Réconciliation Canada). Au moment où j’écris cet éditorial, on retrouve plus de dix mille cadavres d’enfants enterrés dans des tombes non marquées à ces pensionnats à travers l’Amérique du Nord—les corps enfin réclamés et les esprits au retour chez eux. Les Survivants ont parlé de ces tombes depuis longtemps, mais ce n’est que maintenant que l’on admet la vérité et la diffuse largement pour que les canadiens la confrontent. La vérité provoque non seulement la douleur mais aussi la guérison. Pour moi, ce processus commence à faire fondre les chaînes gelées de l’enfance et à libérer ces jeunes enfants qui, au fur et à mesure que l’on rapatrie leurs corps, reviennent enfin chez eux.
Il est important de souligner que cette vérité n’est pas simplement un chapitre noir de l’histoire canadienne, mais plutôt un chapitre en cours. On continue à séparer les enfants indigènes de leurs familles: d’abord il y avait les pensionnats, ensuite la rafle des années soixante et aujourd’hui il y a le système de placement dans les familles d’accueil. Selon les données du Recensement de 2016, plus de 52 % des enfants pris en charge était Autochtones même si les enfants indigènes âgés de moins de 15 ans ne représentent que 7.7 % de la population canadienne. Aujourd’hui, il y a plus d’enfants Autochtones en foyer d’accueil qu’au plus fort du système de pensionnat. Bien que le dernier pensionnat ait été fermé en 1996, les systèmes qui les ont créés sont toujours bien vivants.
Le commissaire en chef de la Commission vérité et réconciliation du Canada, le sénateur Murray, a dit: « c’est l’éducation qui nous a mis dans ce pétrin et c’est elle qui nous permettra d’en sortir » (Débats du Sénat du Canada, 2017). C’est grâce à l’éducation que j’ai commencé à faire fondre les chaînes de ma communauté et à éclaircir mon identité en tant que femme Métisse-crie qui a passé par le système d’éducation public sans jamais avoir appris que ces pensionnats existaient. Ce n’est qu’en troisième année de mes études universitaires—lorsque je me suis inscrite dans un cours sur la santé et la guérison Autochtone avec le professeur Jon Johnson (Université York, Toronto)—que j’ai pris connaissance de cette vérité. Jusqu’à ce moment-là, je n’avais pas compris pourquoi, dans ma famille, notre identité Autochtone était un secret bien gardé et pourquoi les membres de ma famille se sentaient forcés de passer pour des personnes blanches, pour leur sécurité et celle de leurs enfants. Découvrir cette vérité a changé ma vie à tout jamais. Je suis maintenant sur un chemin d’apprentissage, de désapprentissage et de réapprentissage pour que je puisse réclamer ma culture et la léguer aux générations futures. Alors que, pour mes ancêtres, être indigène n’était pas sécuritaire, j’espère que mes enfants futurs pourront grandir dans un monde ou être Autochtone est non seulement sécuritaire mais célébré.
—Artiste d’origine crie et métisse, Marissa Magneson est photographe, éducatrice et animatrice d’ateliers. Elle est doctorant à la Faculté d’éducation à l’Université York (Toronto, Canada)
The Cognitive Benefits of Multilingualism on the Executive Function of Inhibition
Get PDFMultilingual individuals have been observed to possess enhanced cognitive capabilities in comparison to monolingual individuals. In this study, we compared the abilities to inhibit automatic, obvious answers between monolingual and multilingual individuals. It was hypothesized that monolinguals will have more difficulty inhibiting automatic correct answers than multilinguals. Forty-five monolinguals and 44 multilinguals were assessed for cognitive control. Participants were shown 24 individual images of a coloured object (e.g., shown a green apple) and were simultaneously told the colour of the depicted object (e.g., the experimenter said, “green apple”). For half the shown objects, the colour mentioned was the same as the colour shown (e.g., a green apple is shown and the experimenter relays “green apple”) and for the other half, the colour depicted was different from the colour relayed (e.g., a red apple is shown and the experimenter relays “green apple”). Participants had to evaluate whether the image matched the verbal description and say the incorrect answer; if the image depicted matched the relayed statement, the participant had to say “false” (e.g., seeing an image of a green apple and hearing “green apple”) and if the image depicted did not match the relayed statement the participant had to say “true” (e.g., seeing an image of a red apple and hearing the statement “green apple”). Multilingual individuals performed significantly better on the inhibition task compared to monolingual individuals (t(87) = 9.8, p < 0.0001, d = 2.08). These results corroborate past findings that multilingual individuals show enhanced cognitive control required in inhibition. The acquisition and maintenance of many languages appear to be of significant benefit to cognitive abilities
