Over the past several decades, scholars have lamented the erosion of "true" public space through the rise of semi-public and private spaces where access is determined, and usage is increasingly regulated (e.g., through curfews and restrictions on use). Writing in the midst of the sixth wave of COVID-19, the importance of inclusive, open spaces in Canadian urban centres is evident: these are spaces that allow for movement and participation (ideally) across axes of identity and difference. Yet, public spaces are also bound up with the heightened regulation of bodies to supress contagion through social distancing and restrictions on use. While some bodies are in place (and take up space) in public in this context, other bodies face limitations pertaining to discrimination, surveillance, health, and access. This viewpoint highlights the importance of retaining and producing inclusive public spaces and the need to think critically about the urban experience under COVID-19.
This paper reports on the findings of an empirical study of the street‐level visual spatialities of urban platforms in three Canadian cities: Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. Enumerating, typologizing, and spatially analyzing incidences of platforms in these three cities, we find platforms to be concentrated in neighbourhoods classified as “gentrified,” “gentrifying,” and “gentrifiable,” while being largely absent from established affluent enclaves. We theorize the significance of these spatialities in three ways. First, we suggest that the emplaced visibility of platforms functions to cue expenditures of digital spatial capital—the ability to stake claims to space through engagements with digital technologies—in neighbourhoods where these platformized materialities are visually encountered. Second, we argue that these expenditures of spatial capital are associated with the ways in which platforms glamorize mundane urban consumption practices (the aestheticization of consumption) while decoupling acts of consumption from face‐to‐face interaction (the anaestheticization of social relations). And third, we identify propositions for how these an/aesthetic dynamics may potentially influence the further densification of platforms on city streets in transitioned (gentrified) and transitional (gentrifying and gentrifiable) urban enclaves.
Food waste has a devastating effect on the environment, economy, and society. Within Canada, food waste is alarmingly high and on the rise. Technology and mobile applications have been theorized as a potential solution to redistribute food before it becomes waste, raise awareness of food waste, and support behaviours that reduce food waste. This paper critically reviews the literature on mobile applications' effectiveness in reducing food waste within Canadian society. This review found that mobile applications may assist households and individuals with adequate technology, time, and financial resources to reduce their food waste. However, emphasizing mobile applications alone can place the burden of food waste and inequitable food systems on individuals at the end of the food supply system. Food waste reduction needs to be part of an integrated, multifaced portfolio of interventions at governmental, industry, and individual levels. Mobile applications can serve a role in such a portfolio. Mobile applications alone do not eradicate food waste within Canada and households without adequate awareness, resources, or infrastructure.
Most immigrants to Canada who are not refugees contribute to decisions about where they settle; resettled refugees do not. This paper illustrates how one's designated category of resettlement decisively shapes the place one begins life in Canada, and how each has a specific geographical trajectory-or geo-script. The geo-scripts are distinct for each category of resettlement: privately-sponsored refugees live in the same community as the volunteers who finance and support them; government-assisted refugees are "destined" to one of more than two dozen cities with federally-funded refugee-specific services; and blended visa office-referred refugees are supported through a shared funding model between government and sponsors near whom they co-locate. Geo-scripts are derived from refugee categories that effectively govern the spatial settlement patterns of refugees and, in turn, shape the opportunities and outcomes of the resettlement process. Government data show that 70% of resettled refugees do not move after they arrive in Canada. The geo-scripts of resettlement thus shape people's lives and livelihoods in Canada in fundamental ways. Drawing on interviews conducted between 2017 and 2021 with formerly resettled refugees living in four provinces who have lived in Canada for more than 20 years, locational decisions to stay or leave one's initial destination are elaborated.
Applying research results to new locations and situations can be confounded by differences in the geographic context between the original and the applied study sites. Replication studies and meta-analyses may be similarly hindered. We investigated how often canid management research reports (e.g., journal articles, conference proceedings) included information on historical/current lethal control, alternative prey availability, landscape features, and seasonal and settlement characteristics. We included experimental research published between 1970 and 2018, focusing on livestock depredations by wolves and coyotes in North America. Reporting on contextual factors was highly variable; seasonal context was included in 83% of research findings; human settlement characteristics were reported in only 8%. Contextual information was more common in journal versus grey literature, and in reports with academic versus government-affiliated primary authors. Discussions of the effects of contextual factors on livestock depredation mitigation strategies were underdeveloped. Yet, geographic context of research is vital; it can alter animal behaviour and reduce the efficacy of applied mitigation. We suggest reporting guidelines to improve comparisons and meta-analysis opportunities, which may enhance comparisons and management decision making.
Temperate grasslands are the most endangered and least protected biome in the world. Few significant parcels remain and strategies for ongoing protection are critical for conservation efforts worldwide. In southwestern Saskatchewan, three contiguous blocks of native grassland, known as the Prairie Pastures Conservation Area, are federally managed by Environment and Climate Change Canada. Previously, the 800-km(2)space was managed by the Department of Agriculture as public rangeland in the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Agency (PFRA). We interviewed 11 individuals, including NGO representatives and pasture patrons, familiar with the PFRA at a native prairie/grassland conference to enhance our understanding of the importance of the agency and the lands in the province to them, as well as to Canada and globally. Themes that emerged included benefits of historic PFRA management, reservations about privatization of pasturelands, and worries about mismanagement. We take these themes and build them into our recommendations for what Environment and Climate Change Canada should do with the Prairie Pastures Conservation Area going forward: enhance Indigenous collaboration, establish a conservation network, and increase public use and awareness.
Increasing urbanization generates new challenges for cities, including housing shortages, environmental degradation, public health concerns, and food security issues, just to mention a few. High levels of food insecurity can motivate planners to increase their support for community gardening forms of urban agriculture. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified many pressures of urban living. In this paper, we focus on challenges around urban agriculture activities, in particular, exploring regulatory approaches and limitations when it comes to growing food in cities. This study uses qualitative research methods to explore the main barriers to urban agriculture as perceived by community-based groups in Victoria, British Columbia. Data collection included 18 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews, and two community mapping workshops with local residents, government officials, and non-governmental groups. Data analysis generated initial codes and themes that revealed "urban agriculture zones" and "garden-style" apartment housing as important avenues for urban agriculture projects. These findings are relevant in Victoria, where more than half of the population lives in apartments. A food action plan is a regulatory mechanism that can boost food production when aligned with the official community plan. Any progress towards far-reaching changes, however, requires an efficient urban agriculture development process, including creating site inventories, increasing stakeholder participation, reducing waitlists, and tackling high land prices.
Market-based rentals are increasingly prioritized as the tenure type through which to provide housing assistance to low-income households: it is argued that public housing places tenants in neighbourhoods with concentrated poverty, while the private sector is purported to offer households the opportunity to live in locations with less disadvantage. We test this assumption through a case study of a Nova Scotian municipality. Using chi-square tests to examine associations between housing type and neighbourhood deprivation, we find that while 47% of public units are located in places with high social and economic deprivation, one-third of market rentals are located in neighbourhoods with similar characteristics. In addition, in looking at the location of lower-cost market units in particular, we find limited differences in the neighbourhood characteristics in which these more affordable rentals and public housing are found. We argue for the importance of connecting policy and programming to place-based community development and poverty-reduction strategies to support low-income households.
Action at local scales is needed to reduce documented declines in global biodiversity. Agricultural land constitutes 6.8% of the surface area of Canada, including more than 20 million hectares of grazing pasture alone, providing habitat to many species at risk of extinction. In Canada, where a voluntary stewardship approach is the main strategy for species at risk conservation on privately owned and managed lands, the challenge is to create conservation programs that maximize participation. We reviewed research on voluntary conservation programs on agricultural lands from five Canadian provinces to understand which approaches were most effective in maximizing participation. The objective of this paper is to contribute to policy development for conservation on private lands in Canada. We highlight common themes from all five regions. Key findings include the value of establishing a local delivery agent for the program, and the importance of designing the program to be in alignment with existing agricultural operations. Private landowners may build trust with local program managers, and are more open to making subtle adjustments to their land management rather than major changes. We conclude with eight recommendations to support the development of high impact species at risk stewardship programs on agricultural lands in Canada.
The migration literature focusing on understanding interactions between immigrants' integration and transnationalism is replete with mixed findings. However, contemporary consensus among migration scholars suggests that immigrants' integration and transnational connections can occur simultaneously. Focusing on transnational dating-which is understudied-this exploratory study draws on an online qualitative survey with five Ghanaian male immigrants in southwestern Ontario, Canada, to explore how immigrants' attachment to the host society, homeland, and "elsewhere" shape transnational dating behaviour. Transnational dating is conceptualized in this paper as dating partners that live part or most of their life or time detached from each other, yet hold together and create a sense of shared welfare and harmony, namely "datehood" that surpasses national borders. Using the integration-transnationalism matrix as the theoretical framework, this paper demonstrates that the roles of integration and transnationalism should not be seen as separate influences on participants' transnational dating behaviour given participants' strong attachment to the host society, sending country, and "elsewhere." Importantly, our finding indicates that the motivation for transnational dating is related to transnational connections rather than not feeling integrated into Canadian society. Overall, the finding contributes to discourses on dating, transnational dating, transnationalism, and the conceptual framework of the integration-transnationalism matrix.
The night skies have traditionally offered a means of navigation, symbolized the gods, and inspired architecture and creative planning. With the advent of urbanization and the consequent increase in artificial light at night (ALAN), humans have severed their connection with the skies. Some suggest that "astrotourism" may serve as a viable means of re-establishing this relationship. While astrotourism is usually used for referring to activities that revolve around stargazing with "aided" or "naked" eyes, we highlight that there is scope to include exploration of historic monument ensembles and night-time storytelling as a part of astrotourism. Focusing on Khajuraho, we further underscore that ALAN should be replaced with intelligent night lighting strategies to maximize the night-time travel experience for those who take inspiration from the dark skies to reconstruct the historical significance of heritage. As we gradually revitalize our relations with the nocturnal environment, it is hoped that the night skies will infuse our social practices, creative imagination, and historical appreciation with a new vigour.
This paper frames two generations of war resister migration from the United States to Canada and the social movements that supported them as contrapuntal histories, disparate yet woven together, and entangled across space and time. We argue that Canada has functioned at key historical moments as safe haven for war resisters from and others fleeing conflict led by the United States, but that this role was always provisional, historically contingent, and never guaranteed. It is therefore crucial to understand the social movements that arose to support the search for safe haven at different points in geopolitical relations and histories. We develop this argument with empirical research about people who migrated to Canada during wars led by the United States in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In documenting both generations of resister migration, we move across scales to understand the highly embodied geopolitics of these journeys, which run parallel and diverge in key ways. Our analysis thus maps the shifting history of Canada as a safe haven for those seeking refuge from the violence of war and militarism in the United States .
The Coastal Dune Model, used to examine controls on dune development and evolution, includes negative feedback between the wind and the evolving topography that results in a scale-invariant beach-dune profile. While a limited number of reference profiles appear to support the Coastal Dune Model assumption of scale-invariance, previously published studies and conceptual models suggest that the beach-dune profile is not scale-invariant. Using a combination of journal articles, textbooks, and remotely sensed data from Prince Edward Island, Washington state, and Texas, this short communication finds that there is no evidence for a scale-invariant beach-dune profile within and between field sites. Variability in the beach-dune profile is due to site-specific and scale-dependent controls on the beach and the dune that are often highlighted in the conceptual models that authors use to depict the controls on sediment supply and transport from the beach to the dune. Results highlight a need to critically evaluate the assumptions and applications of models such as the Coastal Dune Model, and to explore how and when sites can be considered representative and in support of model results.
Following the 2018 electoral defeat of Burnaby's incumbent five-term mayor, the city enacted a significant policy shift regarding its approach to renters in the gentrifying town centre of Metrotown. This change received unanimous support from Council, despite the fact that seven of eight Councillors were incumbents belonging to the former mayor's political party. In addition to two extensive on-record interviews with former mayor Derek Corrigan in the summer of 2017, this research is informed by a close reading of municipal documents and media accounts, attendance at public events and interviews with housing stakeholders, and quantitative data analysis. Of note are the arguments that the former mayor provided to justify his opposition to the renter support policies that followed his departure from office. Metrotown renters' displacement was attributed to the marginalized position of rental tenure in Canadian society, irresponsible life choices of the poor, and insufficient federal government housing supports for refugees in Metro Vancouver.
