Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” extracts oil and gas from unconventional sources. This has changed the landscape of fossil fuel exploration and production, has greatly increased the world’s reserves of oil and gas, and played a major role in reducing the cost of a barrel of oil. The extraction process is controversial and several jurisdictions have banned it because of environmental and human health concerns. I will review the basic geology of fracking, discuss the controversial issues around the process and tie it into our present concerns about global warming.

An understanding the wide gaps that exist in academic achievement and graduation rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in Canada requires consideration of the impact of a dark and oppressive past.  A recount of education policies and their negative impact on Aboriginal peoples in Canada will be considered as the source of numerous disparities observed between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities today. Unethical situations within Aboriginal Education in Canada will be considered through a historical overview of education policy that will outline the impact and legacy of such with reference to examples from the life and family experiences of the presenter,

This presentation will highlight the following questions:

• Do we need immigration to Canada? Do we want it?
• How do we decide on a maximum number of immigrants?
• Arguments against limited immigration. Against an open door policy.
• Who do we want to come to Canada?
  • Family Class applications ~ How far do we expand the definition of “family? How do we define “spouse”? Who are “dependant children”? “Adoptions – special problems” Parents? Siblings?
  • Economic Immigrants ~ Types of economic immigrants – workers, people with special skills, business people/entrepreneurs. Failure of “investor” or “venture capital” type plans. What takes

The vast majority of people agree that poverty is not a good thing.  We do not want our cities defined by high poverty rates and, when asked, we generally agree that more needs to be done to reduce poverty in our community.

The good news is that research is providing helpful evidence about how communities might “move the needle” on poverty. The overwhelming evidence of the lasting effects of early childhood development, the recent results of the At Home/Chez Soi housing study and the translation of Social Determinants of Health into policy and program directions all provide parts

It seems everyone is on social media these days! Twitter alone currently has over 500 million members: Obama, Queen Elizabeth, and even the Pope have twitter accounts, as do most celebrities in the world.

Surely you can trust social posts from the Pope and the Queen but with the number of people taking part in social media, you can be sure that there are a large number of scam artists and less than truthful posts.

Social media is a very valuable tool for learning, fun, and conversations. But on the flip side, it has destroyed people, careers,

Journalistic ethics is a commitment to seeking and telling the truth. In our times, however, truth has become a tricky and slippery concept. From authoritarian powers which seek to manage the truth, to post-modernists who see multiple, contextual, truths, it is increasingly difficult today to establish a single, authoritative, Capital-T “Truth” on which we can all agree.

Into this messy reality comes social media, the revolutionizing force in journalism and communications today. It is a medium which favours emotion over fact, impressions over reason. “Feelings are the only facts”, said the rapper and record producer Kanye West, in

Kerry Bowman, PhD, will lead a session on the  rapidly changing landscape of end of life decisions in Canada.  This presentation will review the sometimes competing ethical issues in the end of life/ending of life conversation and begin a conversation about  how we personally and as a society can begin to discriminate among competing values and social perspectives on this complex issue.   Dr. Bowman will explore the factors that may influence an individual and their family members to consider a life prolonging versus a life-ending approach when faced with various challenges related to aging, including loneliness, loss of a

What makes life worth living? Why are some lives better than others? What are the best things in life? This presentation will address these philosophical questions in an accessible and entertaining way. More specifically, it will argue that there isn’t just one thing that’s ultimately good: not just pleasure or philosophical contemplation but many things: happiness, knowledge, achievement, moral virtue, love, and more. An ideal life would contain all of them, but different mixtures are suited to people with different talents and opportunities. Though some lives are better than others, there isn’t a single kind of life that everyone should