Canada

'Canada's sweetheart' Anne Murray donates archives to U of T

ullahnor — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 20:59:41 +0000

'Canada's sweetheart' Anne Murray donates archives to U of T

ullahnor Thu, 11/16/2017 - 15:59

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Anne Murray, who paved the way for other Canadian singers on the world stage, donated archives from her 40-year career to the ��Ƶ Libraries (photo by Laura Pedersen)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

City & Culture

Canada

Culture

Music

U of T Libraries

��Ƶ will be home to the archives of Canada's music legend Anne Murray.

The first Canadian female solo singer to reach No. 1 on the U.S. charts, whose albums have sold over 55 million copies worldwide, Murray has donated her extensive archives to U of T Libraries.

The collection includes more than 70 boxes, containing 188 LP albums from around the world, nearly 900 photographs, 253 audiotapes and cassettes going back to the time she was 18, videotapes of her television appearances, yearly scrapbooks of clippings, fan mail from the likes of ABC anchor Peter Jennings and a thank-you note from TV host Dick Clark, to name a few.

“Every television show I ever did, every tape I ever made, people will have access to this,” Murray said in an interview with U of T News. “A lot of the places I played – Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Royal Albert Hall in London, the Palladium in London – it was at the time, monumental for me. Everything’s there.”

U of T Libraries announced the donation of Murray's archives at an event at Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library this week. Murray's 40-year career saw her win four Grammy Awards, 24 Juno Awards, three American Music Awards and three CMA Awards.

“She embodies the Canadian popular music industry,” said Brock Silversides, director of U of T Libraries' Media Commons, which houses an audiovisual library and media archives at Robarts Library. “She's been so successful within Canada and internationally. She's really identified with Canada, even one of her songs Snowbird, that's so Canada.

“Just with her voice alone, she's become enormously successful and has affected a lot of people. At the risk of sounding like a cliché, Anne's music has been the soundtrack to many people's lives.”

A note from Dick Clark (left), photographs, LPs and videos are among the more than 70 boxes in the Anne Murray archives at U of T Libraries' Media Commons

Dressed in a blue leather jacket, Murray, 72, was her down-to-earth self at the announcement Wednesday evening, recalling why she decided to donate the archives.

At the time, she was moving from her Toronto area home of 38 years to a condo, she said, and a squash court in the house was doubling as a storage room.

“It was wall to wall shelves with 40 years of memorabilia,” Murray said. “I had no idea who, if anybody, would want that.”

Well, U of T did.

Read a CBC story on Anne Murray's donation

The university's extensive library system houses the archives of well-known Canadians like Leonard Cohen and U of T alumna Margaret Atwood, whose collections reside at the Thomas Fisher Library.

In this case, a friend of Murray's, music journalist Marty Melhuish, had also donated his material to U of T. He put her in touch with Silversides. Murray recalled her initial phone conversation with the head of Media Commons.

“I said to him, ‘If you don’t want this stuff, I’m going to light a match to it,’” Murray said. “I didn’t see his face. But there was almost an audible gasp.”

The collection includes demo tracks and unreleased recordings, every contract for every record, TV and live performance Murray did until her retirement in 2008. There's a framed gold record from Capitol Records, from sales of Let’s Keep It That Way, in Australia in 1982. U of T librarians hope the archives will offer a window into the music industry and how it worked.

“For somebody who's wanting to reconstruct her career, it's all there,” Silversides said. “One of the strong points of the collection is it's so comprehensive. It covers her entire career and almost any way she has been documented.

“You would gain quite an insight into how she handled her career, how she dealt with people.”

The collection includes photographs, and magazine and newspaper clippings. The photo to the right is from Murray on The Muppet Show in 1980. The collection also includes a holiday card from the Clintons (photo by Laura Pedersen)

U of T Provost Cheryl Regehr spoke at the event, remembering family dinners in the living room watching Anne Murray’s Christmas special on TV.

“These kinds of archives really give us a critical glance into the working mind, and allow us to appreciate true genius as it evolves when we have the opportunity to see work in progress and the finished work. For our students in history, music, Canadian studies, popular culture, this is really a magical resource that’s here for us.”

Murray herself said she hopes members of the public who have access to the digitized archives will see how hard she worked.

“I was on the road so much. You can see by the itineraries that are there. It’s incredible. I look at it, and wonder how I did it. And remember, I had a young family too,” she said. “It was my job, and when it’s your job, you do it, whatever it entails.”

But she said the work was never boring.

“You go from doing television shows, to in studio doing albums, to live shows. There were so many facets to the business. But boy, it sure kept you going.”

Album covers in the collection are from around the world, including Japan and Germany (photo by Noreen Ahmed-Ullah)

Looking back now, she said maybe the key to her success was her voice.

“It was a combination of the sound of my voice – when you hear my voice on radio, there’s no mistaking it – I haven’t heard anyone else who sounds like that ever, except my brothers and my kids.

“It was a very unique sounding voice, and I was good too. But maybe I was in the right place at the right time. I just don’t know. I just feel fortunate that all of those things happened when they did.”

One thing the public won't see in the archives is information about her personal life. Murray, who decided to do a tell-all memoir in her 2009 autobiography, All of Me, said she wanted this collection to be about her career.

“I’m very personal,” she said. “I keep close things to the chest, but the career was something else. I share that with everybody else.

“As a matter of fact, my family often wishes I hadn’t done it. My son once said when they asked him if he was going to get into show business, he said, ‘Why would I do something that took my mother from me?’ And that’s true. Why would he? It was hard on the kids.”

Will she ever come out of retirement to sing again? Murray said not likely.

“No. Once I made up my mind, that was it. Forty years is long enough to do anything, and it was hard work. A lot of sacrifices. A lot of compromises. Even as I look back, I say, ‘Was it worth it?’ I don’t know. It’s what I knew how to do. It’s what I was good at. And how do you turn away from that?”

Scrapbooks include clippings of every article written about Murray. Media Commons' director Brock Silversides said the archives contain almost every documentation of her career (photo by Noreen Ahmed-Ullah)

As O’Leary bows out of conservative race, Bernier set to take the lead, says U of T expert

Romi Levine — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:20:42 +0000

As O’Leary bows out of conservative race, Bernier set to take the lead, says U of T expert

Romi Levine Thu, 04/27/2017 - 11:20

Cutline

Kevin O'Leary has dropped out of the Conservative Party leadership race (photo by Disney | ABC Television Group Follow via Flickr)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

In a surprise move, Kevin O’Leary has dropped out of the Conservative Party leadership race, throwing his support behind Maxime Bernier.

O’Leary cited the lack of support in Quebec as his deciding factor, saying he would not be able to win the general election without it.

With the leadership vote only a month away, U of T News' Romi Levine asked Nelson Wiseman, professor of political science and director of Canadian studies at U of T, and Christopher Cochrane, an associate professor of political science at U of T Scarborough, how his departure will shake up the race.

Does O'Leary's departure surprise you?

Nelson Wiseman: Yes, I think it surprises everyone. I think he decided in the last few days once the numbers were out. This morning, the numbers came out about how many Conservative party members were eligible to vote – about a quarter million – and he knows how many memberships have been sold by his organizers. So he did the math in his head.

O'Leary is a very polarizing figure and because it's a preferential ballot, he knew he would get a good number of first ballot votes, and he wouldn't get many second ballot votes. Nobody's going to get 50 per cent off the bat.

He thinks, “Am I going to put in another month? I might get badly embarrassed at the end where I don't even run in the top two or three. I've got other things to do.” By being in the race, he's missing out doing his TV thing. He can't do both at once. You could see he was in the race only part time anyway.

Chris Cochrane: Yes, I'm not sure what's changed now that wasn't equally true several weeks ago. It strikes me as odd that someone who can't speak French and wouldn't participate in the French debates would all of a sudden come to the realization that they can't win a national election because they need Quebec to win.

The question I would have is what exactly changed in his camp vis-a-vis the road to victory in a federal election.

Did he stop taking it seriously?

Nelson Wiseman: I thought he took it seriously at the get-go, and as it got going, he thought, “I'm going to win it on my terms, or I'm not going to win it.”

I heard that he didn't think he had enough support in Quebec – that was always a mystery and that was one area where potentially he could've made gains even though he doesn't speak French and doesn't know anything about Quebec issues. Most of the ridings in Quebec are “rotten boroughs” – the term comes from British history – these are constituencies in which there are virtually no members. Say each constituency is worth 100 points, if you could sign up five members and if you got all of their votes, you got 100 points. That's the same as 10,000 people voting for you in Calgary South-West.

Chris Cochrane: It's hard for me to get inside his psychology, but my impression is he may well have come to the realization that this is something he doesn't want to do. The reason is I can't see him ever having believed, or the people around him that are advising him believed he would ever be able to make a breakthrough in Quebec.

To me, it looks like somebody who has come to the realization that maybe in fact he couldn't win the leadership race within the party, which is a very real possibility if a lot of entrenched conservatives weren't willing to embrace him either because they felt he was an outsider, or he didn't have that much support from party stalwarts – that may be a good reason to step out of the leadership race.

O'Leary's leadership style was often compared to that of Donald Trump – what made Trump more successful in the leadership race?

Nelson Wiseman: Rules are very important to outcome. Donald Trump could win because there were primaries, and they were first past the post – you just had to get more votes than anybody else. You could win with 38 per cent of the vote.

That doesn't work in the Conservative leadership – you've got to get 50 per cent. So even had O'Leary gotten the most votes on the first ballot, he wouldn't have won in my opinion.

Chris Cochrane: Whether or not Trump had any sort of unique contribution to the Republican success in the last election is very much an open question. For the most part, people who have always voted Republican voted Republican.

O'Leary is different. He is an outsider like Trump. He was an affluent business person. He's been in show business. Those were things that resonated. But he doesn't have Trump's speaking style so he doesn't speak in a way that might connect with folks. Also, the big difference with O'Leary is with immigration. O'Leary's a strong supporter of immigration – he didn't draw the same kind of crowd Trump mobilized in the Republican party.

The differences between O'Leary and Trump are quite significant, the differences between Canada and the United States are quite significant – so even a Trump-like candidate wouldn't have won here.

Do you think Bernier now has the best chance at Conservative leadership?

Nelson Wiseman: I thought that Bernier was the odds-on favourite from even before the time that [Stephen] Harper resigned. That is because he seemed to be openly campaigning for the leadership from the moment he entered parliament.

If you asked me yesterday who was going to win, I'd say Bernier. However, I am somewhat surprised by how strong Andrew Scheer and especially Erin O'Toole have become. What I'm seeing in this race is that I'm not sure there is an establishment candidate. It really is fragmented, and it's simply a matter of who goes out and sells the most memberships and gets those people to actually vote.

I think Bernier has the sufficiently big lead that he could get over the top.

Chris Cochrane: It's hard to say. Based on what I've seen from Maxime Bernier, I don't think he's the person who's going to beat Justin Trudeau.

The hope is, if he can make a breakthrough in Quebec and pick up some seats for the fiscal conservatives in Ontario and keep the West, he'll be well positioned to at least be a competitive candidate. I don't think he'll be a disaster for the party. I think one of the risks for the Liberals in the next election is that they suffer from an enthusiasm deficit especially if some of the progressives and young supporters who park their vote or are new to voting defect from the Liberals because they don't feel they're delivering as purely with some of their left-wing promises.

It's possible the Conservatives could pull off an upset, but I don't think Bernier is the kind of person who is going to be able to draw a lot from the left of the party.

Canada 150: New survey finds big gaps in how we study the country's birth

ullahnor — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 15:16:24 +0000

Canada 150: New survey finds big gaps in how we study the country's birth

ullahnor Wed, 03/29/2017 - 11:16

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The Charlottetown Conference was held in 1864 for representatives from the colonies of British North America to discuss Canadian Confederation (image courtesy of Library and Archives Canada)

Kim Luke

Author legacy

Kim Luke

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Subheadline

��Ƶ and York University researchers surveyed historians and political scientists about how the 1867 Confederation is studied in Canada

A recent survey of Canadian historians and political scientists, conducted by the ��Ƶ and York University, has found that there are important gaps in how Canada’s 1867 Confederation is studied in this country.

The British North America Act was passed 150 years ago today, triggering the process of Canada’s Confederation.

Canada’s 150th anniversary is heralded by some as marking a great moment in the country’s history: a view that reflects the opinion of political leaders at the time. John A. Macdonald, who went on to become Canada’s first prime minister, for example, hailed the union of British North American colonies, predicting “a great nationality, commanding the respect of the world.”

U of T research shows Canada is not immune to anti-immigration movements

ullahnor — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 17:20:20 +0000

U of T research shows Canada is not immune to anti-immigration movements

ullahnor Wed, 02/08/2017 - 12:20

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Protest in downtown Toronto on Saturday against U.S. President Donald Trump's travel ban on Muslims during the National Day of Action against Islamophobia and White Supremacy (photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty)

Sean Willet

Author legacy

Sean Willet

Topic

School of Public Policy and Governance

U of T's School of Public Policy and Governance (SPPG) is part of a joint study that suggests Canadians are not exceptional when it comes to tolerance of refugees and immigrants, and that there is potential here for the same level of xenophobia experienced in Europe and the U.S.

The study conducted with McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC) and the firm Ipsos surveyed 1,522 Canadians between Jan. 18 to 27 – before U.S. President Donald Trump announced his controversial travel and immigration restrictions, and the recent shootings at the Quebec mosque.

“We know now we are not necessarily more enlightened compared to similar countries around the world,” says Michael J. Donnelly, assistant professor of political science and public policy at U of T. “In fact, attitudes amongst Canadians suggest there is potential for the same kind of hate we see appearing elsewhere if we are not careful.”

Donnelly initially looked at recent international public opinion research about immigration and refugees, and then he designed a Canadian poll to compare Canadian attitudes against other countries. The survey sought to answer three questions:

Are Canadian attitudes unusual among a wider sample of wealthy countries?
What do Canadians know about existing immigration policies, and what do they think of those policies?
Are survey respondents restrained by pro-immigration norms from revealing their true attitudes?

The study, “Canadian Exceptionalism: Are we good, or are we lucky,” finds that broadly Canadian attitudes are often assumed to be unusually pro-immigration. Canadians have what Donnelly describes as an “impressive” knowledge of Canada’s immigration and refugee system, and that most are satisfied with Canada’s multiculturalist approach to immigration policy.

But he does not believe that Canada's pro-immigration stance over the last half century is necessarily because of an exceptionally tolerant public. Canada is around average compared to Europe and the U.S. on issues like whether immigrants from poor countries should be accepted and whether the government should be generous in judging people’s applications for refugee status.

About 45 per cent of survey respondents said they would oppose any policy that would end all immigration, 19 per cent said they would support such a policy, but about 35 per cent were undecided.

“The public’s tolerance does not seem to be what drives Canada’s positive history of immigration and integration over the past several decades,” Donnelly says.

The study's results have been featured in the National Post with the data indicating a serious anti-immigration movement in Canada is not impossible.

Read the National Post story

Donnelly and Peter Loewen, director of SPPG and an associate professor of political science at U of T, have also penned an op-ed for the National Post on what this means for Canadian politics and its institutions.

“Canadian politics are not inevitably set to follow the rhetoric and course we see in the United States,” Loewen says. “Our institutions, and particularly our leaders, have the ability to maintain norms of non-racism and inclusion – remember, attitudes do not inexorably lead to policies and politics.”

Read the op-ed

The study also finds that a majority of Canadians think that immigrants are not well connected to society and that they harbour misconceptions about the number and education of immigrants. Loewen and Donnelly argue in the op-ed that politicians and the public have a role to play here:

“[Canadian] politicians and those selecting them have a responsibility to avoid xenophobic pandering and to reinforce the norms of behaviour that have allowed the Canadian model, for all its faults, to create the open, exciting and peaceful society we enjoy.”

'Unexpectedly beautiful' angling and fishing collection at U of T's Fisher Library

Romi Levine — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 18:06:47 +0000

'Unexpectedly beautiful' angling and fishing collection at U of T's Fisher Library

Romi Levine Wed, 01/04/2017 - 13:06

Cutline

U of T's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library has received a massive fishing and angling book collection (photo by Paul Armstrong)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Canadian Cultural Property

The ��Ƶ Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library’s new collection is as fishy as it is fascinating.

Fisher has just received one of the largest collections on fishing and angling in Canada – a total of 1,145 items including books, pamphlets and catalogues from the 16th to 20th centuries, given to the library by an anonymous donor.

“[The donor] gave it to us because of Fisher's reputation,” says Loryl MacDonald, archivist and director of the Fisher Library. “[The donor] decided to remain anonymous because his or her concern was not about promoting himself or herself but rather promoting the wonderful collection and the content.”

The collection has been certified as Canadian Cultural Property due to its aesthetic qualities, research value and uniqueness. Items in the collection, like a tiny fishing manual from the United Kingdom, were once considered mundane and practical but now provide fascinating insight into life hundreds of years ago.

A British chapbook from 1838 on angling for pond and river fish was meant to be a helpful guide during fishing trips (photo by Paul Armstrong)

“Something like that wouldn't have lasted – it's very ephemeral so it's impressive that a little chapbook survived almost 200 years and is in such beautiful condition,” MacDonald says. “It's a typical little book, but it's so exquisite.”

A large part of the collection once belonged to French fisherman and bibliophile Albert Petit who amassed material from all over the world.

“Petit collected everything. He didn't only collect high-level gems, but he also collected catalogues and trade publications as well,” MacDonald says. “These are things that don't normally last as well. We have some beautiful books here, but we also have little catalogues on fishing tackle that were never meant to survive.”

The books provide a window into a time when fishing and angling were popular recreational activities. They can tell us a lot about travel and trade at the time of their publication, MacDonald says.

“What is the basis for tourism in Canada in the early 20th century? A lot of it would have been fishing and angling. You have CPR, CNR railway booklets and pamphlets all on fishing,” she says.

Book lovers who aren’t keen on fishing can still appreciate the stunning binding on some of the books, including is Les Ruses Innocentes, which dates back to 1660.

Les Ruses Innocentes has green Morrocco binding with floral gilt corner pieces added in the 19th century (photo by Romi Levine)

“It's odd, but it's also unexpectedly beautiful,” MacDonald says.

The collection was certified as Canadian Cultural Property, she says, because “it's so culturally significant that its loss would be a loss to Canadian society and heritage.”

Other materials certified as Canadian Cultural Property at the Fisher Library include the archives of the late Leonard Cohen and the archives of acclaimed author and U of T alumna Margaret Atwood.

Report card on climate action: U of T experts analyze Canada's challenges and successes

ullahnor — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 17:44:09 +0000

Report card on climate action: U of T experts analyze Canada's challenges and successes

ullahnor Fri, 11/18/2016 - 12:44

Cutline

Smoke billows out of a paper mill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. (photo by Billy Wilson via Flickr)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Paris Agreement. COP22

Sustainability

International

Global

With COP22 – the UN's climate summit in Marrakech – ending today, a group of researchers in Canada has issued a report on our country’s progress in implementing climate actions at home.

Four University of Toronto experts are part of Sustainable Canada Dialogues, the voluntary initiative of 60 researchers that issued the report.

Liat Margolis is associate professor of landscape architecture at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design. John Robinson is a professor at the School of the Environment in the Faculty of Arts & Science. Matthew Hoffmann is a professor of political science at U of T Scarborough. Steven Bernstein is a political science professor at U of T Mississauga. Robinson, Hoffmann and Bernstein are also affiliated with U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs.

The group is “cautiously positive” about Canada’s climate policies in the past year on the heels of the Paris Agreement. But the report says that, despite positive steps forward, the federal government has been unable to develop a comprehensive plan because it won’t address fossil fuels.

Margolis and Robinson spoke to U of T News about the report and how Canada needs to address climate change.

Read the full report

How is Canada doing in terms of its climate change policy?

Liat Margolis: Canada’s federal government has taken two important steps forward on domestic climate policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: pricing carbon and investing in low-carbon infrastructure. This progress, however, is undermined by the decision to approve the Pacific Northwest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, which is regarded by the Sustainable Canada Dialogues as incompatible with Canada’s worldwide advocacy to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 C.

Other positive steps taken in the last year by the federal government include the release of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, setting up an inter-governmental consultation process that began with the Vancouver declaration, and a renewed engagement with Indigenous peoples, in particular by adopting the UN Declaration on rights of Indigenous peoples.

Despite these critical steps forward, the federal government has been unable, up to this point, to develop a coherent climate action plan, primarily because of its inability to address fossil fuels in a coherent manner.

Recent polls show that 77 per cent of Canadians support a national plan to reach our international targets to reduce emissions. In that regard, the federal government has not responded to the strong support from the public to tackle climate change and increase the level of ambition to accelerate the low carbon transition.

John Robinson: After a long period of inaction on climate change, the federal government has signaled that it takes the issue seriously. As our report card indicates, it is starting to take some positive steps. There are also positive signs in various provinces and cities (the feds can’t do this alone). But there is a long way to go.

What are the successes and the challenges?

Liat Margolis: The decision to put a price on carbon throughout the country starting in 2018 is paramount to curbing emissions. Another major step forward is the $120-billion infrastructure investment plan led by Infrastructure Canada. It exemplifies the federal government’s decision to favour low-carbon infrastructure and has the potential to deliver transformative shifts toward clean energy and robust public transportation. However, its real impact would depend on selecting projects that best contribute to low-carbon and sustainable outcomes.

The Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) developed over the last year by Environment and Climate Change Canada is important for its alignment with the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals and for positioning climate change in the broader context of sustainability. It presents long-term goals, medium-term targets, and short-term milestones as well as evaluation criteria to assess progress. Another positive aspect was the broad public consultation process, which allowed for feedback and served as a way to draw attention to climate change challenges.

The Vancouver Declaration initiated an inter-governmental consultation process on four topics: clean technology, innovation and jobs, carbon pricing mechanisms, specific mitigation opportunities, adaptation and climate resilience. This process is helping to mobilize sub-national governments and Indigenous leaders together with the federal government on climate action while addressing the different social, economic and political realities across provinces, territories and cities. The broad consultation is allowing different regions to explore a diversity of solutions, opening room for creativity, mutual learning and cooperation.

And finally, Canada’s adoption of the UN Declaration on rights of Indigenous peoples is an important step in the right direction. As Canada confronts the challenges posed by renewable energies, future resource extraction, and industrial development, Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous governance are defining issues. The hope is that Canada ensures that the low-carbon energy transition respects Indigenous territorial rights and their special socio-economic and cultural circumstances.

Despite this progress, Prime Minister Trudeau’s decision to approve the Pacific Northwest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project puts into question Ottawa’s commitment to meaningfully tackle climate change. The impact assessment indicates that this LNG project would be one of the largest point source of emissions in Canada and would increase BC’s emissions by 8.5 per cent. Continued development of projects with high greenhouse gas emissions will compromise progress in other sectors. It will prevent Canada from meeting its emissions reduction target for 2030 and is incompatible with Canada’s goal to help limit global temperature increases to 1.5 C.

John Robinson: Climate change has been a difficult problem for governments to act strongly on: a long term issue, very diffused impacts in the short term, focused costs of action in particular sectors with strong political influence, ideological conflict about the issue, etc.

In Canada this has been coupled with resistance, on the part of some governments to recognizing that the problem is real and serious.

Fortunately, some of the benefits of strong climate action (benefits for other environmental and social issues, the emerging outlines of a post-carbon economy, potential leadership in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, etc.) are becoming more apparent.

Canadian and European boreal forests differ but neither is immune to climate change, says U of T researcher

ullahnor — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 20:38:13 +0000

Canadian and European boreal forests differ but neither is immune to climate change, says U of T researcher

ullahnor Fri, 11/11/2016 - 15:38

Cutline

Boreal forest near Kluane Lake Research Station in Yukon (photo by Sophia Lavergne)

Don Campbell

Author legacy

Don Campbell

Topic

Rudy Boonstra has been doing field research in Canada’s north for more than 40 years.

Working mostly out of the Arctic Institute’s Kluane Lake Research Station in Yukon, the U of T Scarborough biology professor has become intimately familiar with Canada’s vast and unique boreal forest ecosystem.

But it was during a trip to Finland in the mid-1990s to help a colleague with field research that he began to think long and hard about why the boreal forest there differed so dramatically from its Canadian cousin. This difference was crystallized by follow-up trips to Norway.

“Superficially they look the same. Both are dominated by coniferous trees with similar low density deciduous trees like aspen. But that’s where the similarities end,” he says.

The real differences are most obvious on the ground, notes Boonstra. In Canada, the ground is dominated by tall shrubs like willow and birch but in the northwestern European forests found in Norway, Finland and Sweden the ground is dominated by dwarf shrubs like bilberry.

“The reason for the difference comes down to different climates,” he says.

It also goes without saying that global warming will have an effect on vegetation and the species that rely on the boreal forest, adds Boonstra.

“The data is still coming in but there are indications that this ecosystem is shifting and it could potentially be a massive shift,” he says, pointing to changes in the global carbon cycle and the predator-prey dynamics.

Boreal forest covers an incredible 50 per cent of Canada’s land mass and has evolved quite differently from the boreal forests of Northwestern Europe say Boonstra, who co-authored the book Ecosystem Dynamics of the Boreal Forest.

The winters in the Canadian boreal forest are drier and 15 to 20C colder, with snow that is soft and shallow. In Northwestern Europe the winter is more mild and wet by comparison with deep snow that packs harder. The milder European winters are driven mainly by westerly winds from North America that dip into the Caribbean and carry warm air across the Atlantic.

The difference in climate means the plant and animal species in both forests have evolved along two very different paths. The Canadian system is dominated by the extreme cold tolerant tall shrubs and the 10-year snowshoe hare and Canadian lynx cycle.

On the other hand, the forests in northwestern Europe are dominated by cold intolerant dwarf shrubs and a three to four-year cycle of small rodent and weasels that live below the snow. It also has a higher density of larger animals like Moose.

“Predators have evolved to the prey, and the prey have evolved to the vegetation in both places,” adds Boonstra.

Boonstra and his colleagues looked at a host of other potential factors to explain the differences between these forests including human activity, density of large mammals and other predators, but the deciding factor came down to climate.

The research, which included collaboration from researchers across Canada and Norway, was published in the journal BioScience and received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Norwegian Science Council.

Boreal forests are important ecological zones because they cover 11 per cent of the Earth’s total land surface and make up 25 per cent of the Earth’s closed canopy forests, which are continuous, uninterrupted forest systems.

These forests play a key role in the global carbon cycle that allows the Earth to be capable of sustaining life.

“There’s no question that a shift in snow consistency and temperature will impact this immense ecosystem,” adds Boonstra.

Today’s ‘job churn’ is a symptom of Canada’s stagnant economy, says U of T expert

Romi Levine — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 13:45:51 +0000

Today’s ‘job churn’ is a symptom of Canada’s stagnant economy, says U of T expert

Romi Levine Mon, 10/31/2016 - 09:45

Cutline

Protest against precarious jobs in Ireland (photo by Ana Rey via Flickr)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

Faculty of Arts & Science

Canada’s stagnant growth is taking a toll on the job market.

After the Bank of Canada downgraded the country’s economic outlook, Finance Minister Bill Morneau told a Liberal Party meeting that temporary, short-term work is the new normal, especially for young people.

“How do we train and retrain people as they move from job to job to job? Because it’s going to happen. We have to accept that,” Morneau said during a question-and-answer session at the meeting last week. The comments almost immediately received backlash from many young Canadians who believe the government isn’t doing enough to support them.

Professor Rafael Gomez, director of the ��Ƶ’s Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources in the Faculty of Arts & Science, says the trend toward precarious work is nothing new.

He spoke with U of T News about how the economy affects the labour market, and what the federal and provincial governments can do to support vulnerable workers.

Has there really been a dramatic shift in Canada’s labour force?

You have to be careful because what people perceive and what the data we have show – sometimes they’re different things. And the Labour Force Survey picks up some of this but not all. But if you just look at the number of people in the standard employment relationship, it has not budged in 18 to 20 years. If you look at the late '90s and compare it to today, it’s about the same proportion of workers who have full-time, permanent jobs in the labour market.

Where is this sense of insecurity coming from? What has increased is the proportion of young people in non-standard jobs, which is everything else but a full-time permanent job. If you break that down a little bit more – and the Labour Force Survey does this a little bit – 70 per cent of people say it’s a voluntary choice. That means 30 per cent of a 25 per cent pie is what we could consider to be in the precarious or more vulnerable state.

What’s behind the increase?

The problem, I think, is that there isn’t a very dynamic and fast-growing economy, which underpins growth in the labour market. When we’re in a stagnant, low-growth environment, it’s hard if you lose a job to get another one. If you’re a new labour market entrant of any kind – that would mean you’re an immigrant, someone who’s lost a job or someone who’s coming out of school looking for a job – it’s difficult to get your foot in the door because there isn’t natural growth. New positions don’t open up.

Has this happened before in Canada?

The recession of the early '80s was far worse on young people. It scarred an entire generation. There’s labour economic analysis that’s been done of cohorts who enter the labour market in particularly bad economic circumstances. You can see the profile of people who enter the labour market during a deep downturn – and those folks tend to have lower earnings throughout their career.

In terms of their attitude and expectations about work and mobility, they’re much diminished.

We’re not really experiencing a recession. It’s a period of more stagnant and low growth, which is different.

What can the federal government do to support precarious workers?

One of the things the government can do is encourage the ability for the labour market to regulate itself by making it easier for workers to join trade unions and to make sectorial arrangements. There are a few sectors in Canada that provide coverage for an entire group of workers. For example, cultural industries have sectorial agreements, meaning that if you work in film or television in Canada no matter where and on which work site – even if the job is temporary – you’re still captured by the same rights a unionized worker would have in a GM plant.

These sectorial agreements, not necessarily tied to a workplace, are effective mechanisms. We’ve seen it in the data we’ve analyzed. They bring the wage up, and they ensure benefits are paid.

Was Morneau’s speech sending the wrong message to employers?

You have low growth, not generating new jobs – that’s the reality of the labour market today. That part was true. It should’ve been buttressed with “but we need to ensure people are not being exploited and taken advantage of because they need to get their foot in the door.” This is something the government should be watching for and not allowing to happen.

What is the Ontario government doing to tackle the “job churn”?

Ninety per cent of workers are covered by provincial labour laws, labour standards and employment laws so the real action is at the provincial level. The Ontario government is undertaking a major review of its labour laws, which pertain to union management relations, and employment standards, which are for everyone else who is not covered by an agreement. The province is exploring different ways and models, especially to help vulnerable workers.

Indigenous people played key role in Confederation, says U of T researcher

ullahnor — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 19:01:40 +0000

Indigenous people played key role in Confederation, says U of T researcher

ullahnor Tue, 10/25/2016 - 15:01

Cutline

Wooden carvings on a box that travelled with the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada (photo by Eyesplash via Flickr )

Megan Easton

Author legacy

Megan Easton

Topic

A U of T researcher and his team will be the first to mine a historical archive that promises to shed new light on the critical role of Indigenous communities in the process of Confederation.

Brian Gettler, an assistant professor of history at U of T Mississauga, will target more than 40,000 pages of documents from the 1860s and 1870s produced by Indian Affairs – the predecessor to today’s department of Indigenous and northern affairs, which is the governing body responsible for managing relations with Canada's First Nations communities.

Until now, these archives have been largely unexplored by researchers.

“The papers have always been accessible," says Gettler. "But Indian Affairs used a complex classification system during these years, which made it extremely difficult to find information.

"No historian to date has gotten into the archives like we [have], so it’s been assumed that essentially nothing happened with Indian Affairs, or very little, during this period when the modern Canadian state was born. Indian Affairs and First Nations have been left out of the equation.”

Now, thanks to an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Gettler and his collaborators (Maxime Gohier of the Université du Québec à Rimouski and Daniel Rück of the University of Ottawa) will take on the daunting task of digging through the archives.

After years of preliminary work, they have “cracked the code,” Gettler says, for retrieving key Indian Affairs documents related to the creation of Canada, including correspondence between government officials ranging from Sir John A. Macdonald to low-level civil servants, draft legislation, and documents detailing the sale and purchase of Indigenous land and resources.

Around the time of Confederation in 1867, Indian Affairs helped construct the legal foundation to enforce Indigenous land policies and the so-called “civilizing” of Indigenous people, culminating in the Indian Act of 1876.

This chapter in Canadian history has traditionally been told from the perspective of a few top men in power, says Gettler.

“With the information we uncover in the archives, we hope to demonstrate that Indian Affairs – and Indigenous peoples – were in fact major players in the formation of Canada. We’re interested in how the conversations were happening internally.”

Gettler grew up in the United States and discovered 19th-century Canadian history as a graduate student in France.

“I saw Canada in a new light and became interested in how the New World settler nations grew up, laid claim to the land and came to be seen as legitimate in international law,” he says.

He believes the research will promote growing awareness among Canadians – sparked by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report – that Canada’s history is only comprehensible with a full understanding of Indigenous people’s history.

“Our country as it exists today would certainly be impossible without the long, problematic history of colonialism, and the relationship – or lack thereof – between Indigenous peoples and the state,” he says.

Debating Trudeau’s carbon pricing strategy

ullahnor — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 18:20:17 +0000

Debating Trudeau’s carbon pricing strategy

ullahnor Tue, 10/04/2016 - 14:20

Cutline

(Photo by Aaron Huey/National Geographic/Getty Images)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Munk School of Global Affairs. Faculty of Arts & Science

UTSC

��Ƶ Scarborough

Subheadline

U of T experts weigh in on whether plan will help Canada reach Paris targets or national agreement

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau surprised some of the provinces this week with a plan to set a minimum carbon tax. Trudeau announced that provinces would have to adopt a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system of their own, or Ottawa will impose its own tax – starting with $10 a tonne in 2018, going up by $10 each year to $50 a tonne by 2022.

But not all provinces are on board. At a meeting with federal officials to discuss options for carbon pricing – which coincidentally was taking place at the same time as Trudeau’s announcement – delegations from Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia walked out of the meeting. Saskatchewan has previously threatened legal action and Alberta has made its support contingent upon “serious concurrent progress on energy infrastructure.”

U of T News asked four experts – Matthew Hoffmann, a professor of political science at ��Ƶ Scarborough and co-director of Munk School’s Environmental Governance Lab; Douglas Macdonald, senior lecturer at the School of the Environment; Geography Professor Danny Harvey; and U of T Mississauga's assistant professor of political science Sara Hughes – whether a pan-Canadian agreement can be reached. Some think it can work. Others are not so sure.

Will Trudeau’s carbon pricing proposal work? Is there any hope of a nation-wide agreement?

Matthew Hoffmann: There are a number of dimensions to this plan “working,” including whether it helps reach the government’s climate goals, whether it can be implemented, and whether provinces will buy in. One smart aspect of this plan, even given the immediate negative reaction of three provinces, is that it is very flexible for the provinces. What the federal government is putting in place is a price floor, the minimum price on carbon. That floor only comes into play if a province does not put in place their own carbon-pricing system. Provinces can do whatever works best for their particular situation as long as it meets the price-floor requirement. Further, even if the federal carbon tax is implemented, the revenue from that tax is returned to the province. There is enormous flexibility for provinces here along with a unified carbon price. This is a good recipe, even if there will be some difficulty in getting buy-in from all provinces. In addition, Canada needs to work hard on a just transition away from fossil fuels because of how dependent some provinces are on the energy and fossil fuel sectors. Communities dependent on fossil fuel industries and the ordinary people who live in them will bear the costs of the dislocation that is inevitable in such a necessary transition. It is both right and politically smart to provide support (financial, training, careful transition planning for communities).

Douglas Macdonald: I think there is very little hope. The federal government has been clumsy in its approach with the provinces. First, by insisting on a national price even before the first meeting with premiers March 3 in Vancouver. Then, by ratifying the Paris agreement before reaching an agreement with the provinces. Thirdly, by insulting them yesterday by inviting them to a meeting to discuss common action and then that same day making a unilateral announcement. The provinces are the key players here. What we need to do is put in place a process which will allow agreement on sharing the costs of the reduction.

Sara Hughes: Trudeau's carbon pricing proposal has a good chance of working, in part because it requires very little in the near term from several provinces, including Ontario, that have already established carbon pricing schemes of their own. The advantage of the federal government's intervention is that it will help to bring other provinces on board and create a minimum level of mitigation effort expected of provinces. One factor that will help or hinder the ultimate success of Trudeau's proposal will be the decisions provinces make about how the revenues generated from carbon emissions will be used. These revenues could be used to further invest in low-carbon infrastructures such as public transportation or energy efficiency upgrades, or used as tax breaks to polluters disgruntled at having to pay to reduce their emissions.

Danny Harvey: Maybe not. But the federal government still can (and must, if necessary) act on its own. Along with the carbon tax, the federal government’s actions to reduce greenhouse emissions could include infrastructure funding (including a national HVDC grid to use renewable energy), funding for building retrofits, refusal to approve any new fossil fuel infrastructure projects, vehicle standards and any other standards where the federal government has jurisdiction on the issue.

Environmentally, will the pricing be enough to cut carbon emissions significantly? Will it help us meet what we agreed to at the Paris climate conference?

Matthew Hoffmann: The carbon-price floor in the federal government’s plan starts off quite low, but ramps up. This should have an impact on Canadian emissions according to economic models. Carbon pricing alone, and carbon pricing at this low to modest level, will likely not be enough on its own to meet Canada’s Paris targets, but it is a good start and it is concrete national level action that has been missing in Canada for far too long.

Douglas Macdonald: No. It will not provide the reduction needed. Canada has to get down to 542 megatonnes (Mts) total emissions in 2030 from a projected level, including the new Alberta and Ontario programs of 709 Mts. That means a reduction of about a quarter. The federal tax will only bring about reductions in provinces which do not have a price, and their emissions are a small part of the Canadian total. It is the provinces which contribute the bulk of emissions, e.g. Ontario and Alberta which account for 60 per cent of the total, which must do more. But they are not objecting to the federal statement, beyond Alberta wanting a pipeline, because they know they are not being asked to do more. For that reason, this measure alone cannot meet the 2030 goal. But Trudeau and his government may honestly feel that we have to start with a price throughout the country and then increase it. But there is also a political benefit – by framing the problem as a lack of a national price, rather than a need to cut emissions by a quarter beyond existing initiatives, he gives himself a problem he can solve. He can claim success, as long as everybody ignores the fact that he is not taking action which will meet the 2030 goal.

Sara Hughes: The prices proposed by Trudeau will certainly help Canada meet its Paris commitments, but it alone will not be sufficient to ensure significant reductions in carbon emissions. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions 30 per cent by 2030 also does not represent the level of emissions reductions the international community agreed are necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change. These carbon prices will need to be accompanied by further policy development and investments in low-carbon technologies and infrastructures, particularly in Canada's cities and energy systems.

Danny Harvey: I can't see how it could. The tax is way too small - when it reaches $50/tonne in 2022, it still amounts to only 11 cents/litre on gasoline, for example. We did not see a real shift to existing more fuel-efficient cars until gasoline peaked at around $1.40/litre around 2008, and it is now around $1.00/litre. Consumers have gone back to buying less fuel-efficient vehicles. Overall, a much stronger price signal is needed – maybe start at $30/tonne in 2017 and go up by $20-30/tonne per year until we reach $200/tonne, which amounts to 44 cents/litre on gasoline.

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Canadian and European boreal forests differ but neither is immune to climate change, says U of T researcher

Today’s ‘job churn’ is a symptom of Canada’s stagnant economy, says U of T expert

Indigenous people played key role in Confederation, says U of T researcher

Debating Trudeau’s carbon pricing strategy