Singling out oil and gas doesn’t make sense
Canada’s strategy to single out greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry could make it harder to meet overall reduction targets, according to two leading energy analysts. Neither of Ottawa’s two proposed policies to cap and reduce oil and gas emissions would allow carbon market trading with other industries. That’s a problem, says…
We need to have more diversity in the data used in training AI databases
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers numerous benefits, but training with robust data is essential to developing quality AI systems. Our underwater database assists in developing recognition systems for ocean/sea search and rescue operations, our dental database helps train new dentists in accurate diagnosis of dental diseases, and our facial recognition database assists law enforcement in the…
Hanna Daniel has made it her business to foster diversity by empowering others
Like an itch that needs scratching, when Hanna Daniel sees something that cries out to be done, she doesn’t regard it as optional. So when the business student arrived at the University of Alberta and realized there was no campus group for black students, she got down to the business of starting one. After a…
Experts to examine systemic problems, make evidence-based recommendations
A research team led by a University of Alberta scholar has received nearly $2.5 million in new federal funding for a national research project aimed at reforming the Canadian justice system. The team, headed by sociologist Sandra Bucerius and including the United Way and academic experts on the court and prison systems from across Canada, was awarded a Partnership Grant from…
There is power in your voice, say the creators of Canada Confesses
After the murder of George Floyd and the American Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Nancy Tangon and Priscilla Ojomu were dismayed by some of the Canadian reaction. The two University of Alberta psychology students kept hearing the same refrain: “Thank God we’re not the U.S., with their toxic racism. We don’t have those problems…
The Black Graduate Students’ Association helps build a more inclusive university for all students
Heather Gray Lamm’s introduction to the Black Graduate Students’ Association came while she was sitting on the floor of the Butterdome at the University of Alberta. Lamm, a new graduate student, was taking a moment amidst the chaos and crowd of orientation to figure out where she was supposed to be. “You’re easily invisible in such…
How do you attract and retain over 50s talent?
As we lead longer and healthier lives, the reality for many of us is that we will need to, or indeed want to, work longer than previous generations. However, despite this, ageism in the workplace continues to hold people and businesses back. Ageism at work largely ignores the many positive attributes mature-age colleagues bring to…
Cancel culture plays right into the wheelhouse of those who are angry, fearful and manipulative
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘cancel culture’ as “the practice or tendency of engaging in mass cancelling as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure.” This is nothing new; we see numerous examples of what we now call cancel culture in history. Society cancelled people it disapproved of during witch hunts. The aristocracy was…
Institutional, systemic discrimination was attacked root and branch as far back as seven decades ago
When Jordan Peterson recently tweeted out a copy of Home Depot’s ‘white privilege’ memorandum given to its staff, it rightly caused a stir: Yet another corporation’s diversity, equity and inclusion staff parroting a simplistic academic theory. The memo offered the usual assumption that one’s skin colour explains incomes and opportunities, or not. It includes the…
The ELITE program gives participants tools and skills to break down barriers in STEM careers
It takes more than technical knowledge to succeed in a career in science, technology, engineering or math. It takes a network of support and skills beyond the strictly academic, said engineering professor André McDonald. Black students face particular challenges, which is why McDonald founded a program at the University of Alberta in 2021 to support and…