Four Canadian pilots founded Free to Fly at the end of August attracting more than 38,500 members
Should Canadians be free to fly without a COVID-19 vaccination? Four Canadian pilots thought so and founded Free to Fly at the end of August. By now, the organization has attracted more than 38,500 members, including 2,800 airline staff. In an interview, Free to Fly co-founder Derek Grigor said the time was ripe for their…
Does the party really believe women can't win in a fair fight against men?
Political parties propose and support many policies and ideas. Some ideas are top-flight and beneficial to their political fortunes. Others seem good in theory, but may require additional tinkering or minor adjustment(s). Still other ideas may turn out to be untenable, or require a significant overhaul or have to be abandoned. Then there are ideas…
And is leading to the rise of a new inquisition to persecute and ostracize dissenters
The ongoing campaign against COVID-19 has several religious attributes and analogues. I’m not talking about Mologic or Luciferase, or the way “Build Back Better” looks like code for 666, given that ‘b’ is a cipher for ‘6’. I’m not referring to the dozens of ways millenarians enthusiastically uncover apparent connections between this period of tribulation…
Nowhere else in the world could a person speak only one language and be considered educated
A Czech proverb says, “You live a new life for every language you speak. If you only know one language, you only live once.” Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau got himself into hot water recently due to his inability to speak French. How he was chosen to lead a corporation that’s expected to offer services…
Any attitude, word, action or law that draws us away from our common humanity steps toward genocide
Most people would agree that evil exists, yet very few of us understand it. We find it convenient to blame all the problems of the world on terrible but powerful individuals, or on one misguided group. In truth, there are good and bad people in every group, and there’s even good and bad in each…
Unique research links academic findings with concrete change for Muslim communities
For Jordana Salma, academic research should be a two-way street: an ongoing cycle of asking questions, identifying concerns and then working with communities to address them. The assistant professor in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Nursing relies on Alberta’s Muslim community to guide her studies of aging and health for seniors. In return, she promises to…
Research shows men are given second chances much more than women
Indira Samarasekera and Martha Piper have been leaders in post-secondary education every step of the way, right up to the presidencies of two of Canada’s top research universities. They explore what they’ve learned in a new book, Nerve: Lessons on Leadership From Two Women Who Went First. Samarasekera made University of Alberta history in 2005 as…
Americans facing voting barriers due to race, age, income less likely to have health insurance; implications for Canadian system
Americans who face barriers to voting due to their racial background, age or socio-economic status are also less likely to have health insurance, according to recently published research in The Lancet Regional Health - Americas. “We saw a significant relationship between barriers to voting and being uninsured, particularly among African Americans, Asian Americans, those living in lower-income households…
Discrimination is actually less pervasive in more competitive industries
One of the favourite myths peddled by proponents of government control is that under the free-market system discrimination is rife and leads to unfair outcomes for minorities, women, and other groups. Thus, they say, we need government regulation to correct this unfairness and equalize outcomes. The myth persists despite having been repeatedly debunked over decades,…
Training modules, advisory group designed to help nurses, caregivers and others overcome biases against older people
A University of Alberta researcher is hoping to start a Canada-wide revolution to combat discrimination against older people, starting with a change to the way nursing students are educated. “Ageism has been described by other scholars as the last “ism” that is socially accepted,” said Sherry Dahlke, associate professor in the Faculty of Nursing. “It’s subtle and…