Questioning Heteronormativity: Lesbian and gay challenges to education practice in British Columbia,Canada

This paper explores social movement organizing within social institutions, using the cases of the Surrey book banning and the Trinity Western University, two cases of activist litigation in British Columbia, Canada. In these cases, lesbian and gay teacher activists challenged heteronormative constructions in educational practices, in one case by introducing lesbian and gay-positive reading materials in the elementary grades, in the other by challenging the right of an evangelical university to train teachers for the public education system. In the context of the existing literatures on social movements within institutions and challenges to education practices, the paper emphasizes two main conclusions: 1) challenges to educational practice may be mounted by teachers themselves, despite their professional and 'insider' status and 2) a range of different types of relationships are possible between social movement challenges within social institutions and social movements outside of institutions. In the cases presented here, the strategies, discourses and frames of 'insider' challenges to educational practices were drawn from the teacher-activists' location as part of the broader legally focused Canadian lesbian and gay movement.     

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on First Nations Child Welfare: Why if Canada wins, equality and justice lose

Repeated reports indicate that First Nations children on reserve receive less child welfare funding than other children in Canada despite the fact that First Nations children have higher child welfare needs. After the Government of Canada failed to implement two joint solutions to address the inequality, First Nations organizations in Canada filed a human rights complaint alleging that the Government of Canada is discriminating against First Nations children on the basis of race and national ethnic origin. This historic case is now before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and marks the first time that Canada has been held to account before a legal body for its current treatment of First Nations children and their families. This opinion article presents the facts leading up to the filing of the human rights case, the grass roots advocacy and legal processes after the complaint was filed, and the implications for: First Nations children, individuals from minority groups, and the moral fabric of the country if the Government of Canada wins the case.     

The essential role of cultural safety in developing culturally-relevant prevention programming in First Nations communities: Lessons learned from a national evaluation of Mental Health First Aid First Nations

Mental Health First Aid is a population health approach that educates people to recognize and respond to mental health challenges. Since 2012, the Mental Health Commission of Canada has worked with six First Nations communities to develop a culturally-relevant version of the program called Mental Health First Aid First Nations (MHFAFN). This paper presents mixed methods, multi-informant data from a national evaluation to assess the extent to which the course was experienced as culturally safe by Indigenous participants, factors that contributed to these experiences, and ways in which cultural relevancy of MHFAFN can be improved. Our evaluation team conducted participant interviews and surveys, as well as facilitator interviews. Nearly all Indigenous participants (94.6%) experienced the course as safe. Participants and facilitators identified a range of factors that promoted cultural safety, including the knowledge and skills of the facilitators and the cultural components of the course. Participants that did not experience safety identified trauma-related factors and facilitation style. The findings suggest that MHFAFN may be situated in a way where shared cultural backgrounds are imperative to the success of the course. Further evaluation of the MHFAFN curriculum, with the goal of continual improvement, may help to further enhance participants’ experiences in taking the course.     

Urban Aboriginal and First Nations perspectives on casinos and the First Nations gaming industry in Alberta,Canada

There is a surprising paucity of information about urban Aboriginal gambling behaviours and practices, considering that the urban Aboriginal community is the fastest-growing demographic group in Canada and that indigenous people have some of the highest rates of gambling and problem gambling. Interpreting the focus group findings from First Nations and urban Aboriginal participants in Alberta, this study provides insights into urban Aboriginal and rural First Nations attitudes to gambling and the perceived value of the provincial First Nations gaming industry. Although the First Nations focus groups were aware of gambling's associated positive and negative outcomes, they were generally supportive of their communities' decision to pursue casinos. The urban Aboriginal focus group, however, identified little positive about the casinos, even if its participants supported the First Nations' capacity to pursue casino development. These tensions demand policymakers' attention.     

Place making,grassroots organizing,and rural protest: A case study of Anahim Lake,British Columbia

Contemporary rural social movements bring diverse interest groups and stakeholders together at the local scale in the pursuit of common visions and goals, often against the backdrop of an external threat. The challenge for a movement's leaders is to negotiate and design a rural agenda that resonates with this complex constituency. One way to approach this problem is to construct and politicize a local sense of place as a means of rallying insiders against outside forces and pressures. This article explores the place-making activities of rural leaders operating within a complex social setting through an analysis of a grassroots social movement in Anahim Lake, British Columbia. The study uses the concept of the “place frame” to explore how Anahim's activists created a local discursive framework that enabled them to bridge dissimilar environmental values and practices within the community. The removal of external pressures following protest, however, saw the dissolution of this alignment. In documenting this process, the article contributes to a fuller understanding of the significance of place in grassroots protest and activism.     

Devolution of Services to Children and Families: The Experience of NPOs in Nanaimo,British Columbia,Canada

This study focuses on the current experience of Nanaimos nonprofit family and child service organizations (N = 29) providing services on behalf of government and their adaptation to this devolution. The effects and consequences of contracting on organizational practices, accountability, and services were explored through interviews and focus groups with executive directors, board members, line staff, government representatives, and the United Way. Results show that a significant proportion of funding comes from provincial government contracts. The funding climate is uncertain, and there is considerable confusion, stress, and time involved with the contracting process. Accountability requirements are demanding and nonprofit organizations (NPOs) express concern about a shift to a business management model. Recommendations include a need for increased collaboration between NPOs, a body that speaks for the voluntary sector, and improved relationships between NPOs and government funders.     

The construction of communicative (in)competence in autism: a focus on methodological decisions

Research on people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (henceforth autism) is often based upon biomedical understanding. Such understanding tends to view the characteristics related to autism diagnosis, such as the lack of or atypical use of speech, as a sign of incompetence that can be reduced as an underlying pathology of an individual. However, little research has explicitly investigated how methodological decisions in research might influence the perception of these characteristics. This paper draws on two separate research cases involving minimally verbal children with autism to examine how methodological decisions in research design, data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation influence the construction of communicative (in)competence in these children. The paper encourages researchers to carefully consider and reflect on the methodological decisions they make throughout the research process.     

Disability in British poetry of the First World War

In 2005, K.D. Laird published an abrasive critique of the poem ‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen. This iconic trench poet of the First World War was accused of portraying his impaired veteran as a tragic victim of loss. However, 50?years before the modern disability movement, Owen lacked the language to interpret impairment as oppression. What ‘Disabled’ requires is a contextual analysis that integrates its literary qualities with the historical conditions. This article applies such an approach. Firstly, the technical devices used to tell the story are examined: for example, rhyming, verse structure and allusions. Secondly, the experience of impairment represented in the poem is related to early-twentieth-century British society: in particular to the initial patriotic enthusiasm for the War, to the influence of gender roles and to the limitations of state provision. In this way, we see how Owen’s literary image is situated within a historical time frame.     

A tale of two cities,with bears: understanding attitudes towards urban bears in British Columbia,Canada

The management of black bears (Ursus americanus) in urban and/or exurban settings is of growing concern as these mammals, along with coyotes, cougars and others, begin to re-colonize areas from which they had been extirpated. Urban and exurban landscapes can offer much needed habitat to these space-demanding creatures, thereby buffering habitat losses in other areas and protecting populations of these species, but only if conflicts between these animals and humans can be managed and minimized. In the case of urban black bears, they can become quickly labled as a “problem” bear if they become too reliant on human garbage or other food sources such as fruit trees. A “problem” bear usually becomes a dead bear. In collaboration with the Northern Bear Awareness Society in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, UNBC researchers undertook two surveys of Prince George over a 3 year period and a companion survey in the city of Coquitlam, BC to examine attitudes towards urban bears. The research found that residents of both cities, in spite of regular and close encounters with black bears, strongly supported the presence and preservation of bears within an urban setting, largely due to conservation concerns. Both communities were supportive of non-lethal control of “problem bears” and supported the use of warnings and fines to discourage human behaviors that created human-bear conflicts over lethal controls. These findings offer support for municipal governments to reconsider approaches to urban bear management.

     

The effects of listener and speaker training on emergent relations in children with autism

The current study assessed the use of standard conditional discrimination (i.e., listener) and textual/tact (i.e., speaker) training in the establishment of equivalence classes containing dictated names, tacts/textual responses, pictures and printed words. Four children (ages 5 to 7 years) diagnosed with autism were taught to select pictures and printed words in the presence of their dictated names, and to emit the tact or textual response corresponding to a presented picture or printed word. Both speaker and listener training resulted in the formation of stimulus classes for 3 of 4 participants.     

The effects of tact training on stereotypic vocalizations in children with autism

This study was a systematic extension of Karmali, Greer, Nuzzulo-Gomez, Ross, and Rivera-Valdes (2005) and Ahearn, Clark, MacDonald, and Chung (2007). We investigated the effects of a tact correction procedure on stereotypic vocalizations in 4 children diagnosed with autism who ranged in age from 6 to 16 years. Participants had limited vocal verbal repertoires and were primarily dependent on prompts for the emission of appropriate vocalizations. A multiple-baseline design across participants was used. Data were collected on instances of stereotypic vocalizations and independent tacts during baseline conditions and on instances of stereotypic vocalizations, independent tacts, and echoic-tacts during intervention. Procedural integrity and social validity data were also obtained. The results indicated a decrease in stereotypic vocalizations for 3 of the 4 participants and a slight increase in appropriate vocal verbal behavior (i.e., tacting) for all participants. The study provides support for the use of tact correction procedures to decrease stereotypic vocalizations and increase appropriate vocalizations in children with autism.     

将休闲游客纳入海洋保护区规划——以加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚地区的游艇研究为例

海洋保护区(MPAs)与海洋功能区划的社会目标和生态目标若要实现,必须得到利益相关方的理解。本文以游憩机会序列(ROS)和游憩冲突模型为基础,考察了加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚海洋保护区里面的游艇者。笔者在夏季对到访该地区的游艇者(n=543)进行了问卷调查。调查结果显示,游艇者对环境的偏好各异,证明应该以游憩机会序列为基础进行海洋保护区规划与海洋功能区划。站在游艇者这一群体的角度,他们最看重的是自然环境,帆船驾驶者比汽艇驾驶者更倾向于自然和安静的环境,而汽艇驾驶者则比帆船驾驶者更倾向于以建成设施和采掘活动为特征的环境。有些海洋活动则成为游艇者冲突的根源,包括私人船只、商业赏鲸船只以及贝类水产养殖。本文通过分析指出,有些冲突可以通过海洋功能区划解决,而另外一些最好是通过教育和沟通的方式。文末还针对海洋保护区的管理及未来的研究方向提出了建议。     

Companion animals in families of children with autism spectrum disorder: Lessons learned from caregivers.

Companion animals (i.e., pets) have been increasingly recognized for the roles they play in families, including those with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This cross-sectional study explored the unique functions of companion animals within families with a child with ASD. Phenomenology was used to analyze the responses of participants (N = 338) who responded to a survey offered through the Interactive Autism Network. The study initially focused on dogs; however, the analysis was forced to expand to other species due to the data provided by participants. Seven major themes emerged: bonding and benefits, learning opportunities, barriers, grief, fit (match of family characteristics with those of the companion animal), safety, and alternative animals. Successful fit between companion animals and families was often described as necessary for beneficial functions. Barriers included necessary cost and time, as well as required supervision of interactions to enhance safety of the children and animals.     

Two decades of serving children with autism in the People’s Republic of China: achievements and challenges of a state‐run mental health center

This article presents the results of research conducted at the first place where autism was diagnosed in China, the Nanjing Child Mental Health Research Center. The purpose was to examine the development of service provision for children with autism in this state‐run medical institution. Specifically, the specific intervention model for autism, factors influencing the development of this model and how structural and organizational features of the institution impact on the implementation of that model are examined. Results indicate: (1) the importance of family involvement in intervention due to limited services in China; (2) the challenges of providing educational services at a medical institution during the reform period. The implications of these services in contemporary China are significant to consider as an important way to address the rights of individuals with disabilities to have equal opportunities in society, beginning with early education.     

The Self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and the Limits of United Nations Advocacy in Guerrero,Mexico (1998-2000)

This essay examines the visit to Mexico in February 2000 by Erica-Irene Daes, then chairperson of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations. I use the occasion of this visit to analyze the relationship between a regional indigenous organization in the state of Guerrero, the Mexican national state, and the United Nations within the larger context of the development of international law. I argue that the persistence today of a centuries-old bias in international law that privileges the "nation-state" and a related individualistic bias in the conception of human rights make UN support for indigenous self-determination highly equivocal. I begin with an examination of the Consejo Guerrerense and how its experience helps to illustrate the issues confronted by the indigenous rights movement in Mexico today. Then I provide background to place this movement and the United Nations in the context of the development of international and human rights law. The discourse of international human rights and the ways in which these rights are defined and advocated by the UN has serious limitations for Indians in Mexico. This is a cautionary tale about the real possibilities for social change in our global world.     

From Resistance to Activis m: The Emergence and Persistence of Activism among American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada

The concept of ‘emergent ties’ is often used to refer to the role of social networks in activating social movements. Yet pre-existing network ties were usually not a factor in initiating decisions of 50,000 draft-age American youth to migrate to Canada during the American Vietnam War. These youth often learned about the possibility of migrating to Canada through the news media and a widely distributed draft resistance manual. Once in Canada, they often became involved in networks that directed and sustained their movement activity. This suggests that the emergence and persistence of activism may often be distinct. This paper argues that a transformation process that leads to activism is often a life stage specific process, usually in late adolescence or early adulthood, whose explanation requires detailed attention to everyday behavioral activity; while the evolution and persistence of activism is often a life course persistent process that covers a longer period and involves the influence of more generically structured network ties. These patterns are demonstrated in a fuzzy set analysis (FSA) of early and longer term political activism in the lives of Americans who migrated to Toronto during the Vietnam War. We find that for both men and women, helping others was a necessary experience in transforming the resistance involved in this migration into collectively organized anti-war activism, and that a longer term tendency of the women who migrated to Canada to remain more involved than men in social movements is a product of their continuing contacts with the persons involved in their earlier activism. The results of our research underline the importance of distinguishing life stage specific and life course persistent processes in the study of social movements, and more generally that the study of social movements and the life course have much to contribute to one another.     

‘Exercise is medicine’: Understanding the exercise beliefs and practices of older Chinese women immigrants in British Columbia, Canada

In this paper we examine how Western biomedical beliefs around exercise and related health practices compare and contrast with traditional Chinese medicine's (TCM) conceptions of health and exercise in a globalizing society, and how these narratives about health and physical activity are understood and taken up by 15 aging Chinese immigrant women (aged 65+) living in the multicultural city of Vancouver. Drawing upon theoretical work around the body and society to guide our analysis (including the ideas of Bourdieu and Foucault), we outline how the participants in our project take a pragmatic approach to their use of medicine, combining TCM with Western biomedicine in creative ways. However, understandings of the body are underpinned, we argue, by Eastern narratives of the ‘oneness’ of mind-body and the need for ‘balance’ in order to achieve health. Towards this end, we found that many of the participants view (and use) traditional Chinese body practices as an extension of TCM, a technique to help them achieve balance. We conclude that the neoliberal narrative of personal responsibility for health does not fuel the exercise practices of many of the participants, but rather that they perceive exercise as a pleasurable activity that improves their levels of happiness (and balance) and enhances their lives.     

Unwelcoming communities: youth observations of racism in St. John's,Newfoundland and Labrador,Canada

While studies of racism have focused primarily on large urban centres, its effect on young visible minorities living in smaller centres has only recently been given increased attention. Using data collected from over 850 surveys, this article will analyse junior and senior high school students’ observations of racism. The results suggest that youth living in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada believe that racism is more as a problem at the provincial- and national-level despite overwhelming evidence that they have witnessed it at their school and in their city. While for these youth racism is both fluid and contextual, they also employ a number of strategies in order to appear non-racist.     

Quick,uncertain, and delayed adults: timing,sequencing and duration of youth-adult transitions in Canada

The transition from youth to adulthood in western societies has become more prolonged and complex as traditional societal norms have lost influence. Using retrospective data from a cohort of 43-year-old Canadians surveyed in 2010 (n?=?405), we mapped the timing, sequencing, and duration of ‘first stage’ youth-adult transitions (leaving home, finishing formal education, obtaining a full-time job) and ‘second stage’ youth-adult transitions (marriage, parenthood, home ownership). Latent profile analysis identified five distinct transition profiles – norm-setters, quick adults, uncertain adults, adult students, and delayed adults – with different amounts and timing of post-secondary educational investment playing an important profile-shaping role. Although youth-adult transitions have become less standardized and more individualized, especially for first stage transitions, these transitions are still quite structured and continue to be affected by gender and family socioeconomic status.