Citystats and the History of Community and Segregation in Post-Second World War Urban Canada

This article introduces an open access website—citystats.uvic.ca —designed to facilitate historical scholarship on ethnicity in post-Second World War Canada. Citystats offers access to two sociological measures of urban residential patterns, D and P*, applying the measures to the ethnic origins variables in the Canadian census for all urban areas since 1961. D, the index of dissimilarity, is the most common gauge of urban residential patterns, describing the extent to which ethnic groups are evenly (or unevenly) distributed across the city. P*, a measurement of the exposure of groups to one another, provides historians with a summary of the everyday surroundings of urban residents. The article explains the measures and highlights some puzzling patterns in the history of urban Canada, especially the segregation of Jewish Canadians and the relative integration of Aboriginal people. Just as scholars might be expected to know (at least approximately) the number of people comprising the group that they intend to study, they should also, I argue, be aware of their distribution across urban space and their exposure to other urbanites.Cet article présente un site Web en accès libre, citystats.uvic.ca, conçu pour faciliter l’étude historique portant sur l’ethnicité dans le Canada d’après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Citystats permet de manipuler deux mesures sociologiques de schémas résidentiels urbains, D et P*, mesures appliquées aux variables sur l’origine ethnique du recensement canadien pour toutes les régions urbaines depuis 1961. D , l’indice de dissimilitude, est l’indicateur de schéma résidentiel urbain le plus courant pour décrire l’uniformité de la distribution des groupes ethniques dans une ville. P* , mesure de l’exposition des groupes les uns aux autres, brosse pour les historiens le portrait du milieu dans lequel les résidents urbains vivent. L’article explique ces mesures et met au jour des tendances surprenantes dans l’histoire de la vie urbaine au Canada, en particulier la ségrégation des juifs canadiens et l’intégration relative des peuples autochtones. De la même façon que les historiens doivent connaître (du moins approximativement) le nombre de personnes dans le groupe qu’ils étudient, je postule qu’ils doivent aussi comprendre leur répartition dans l’espace urbain et leur proximité avec les autres citadins

Falling Far from the Tree: Transitions to Adulthood and the Social History of Twentieth-Century America

Employing the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series of the University of Minnesota, we chronicle the changing timing and duration of transitions to adulthood in the twentieth century. Successive generations of young Americans reinvented the transition to adulthood to accommodate shifts in the economy and the American state. The patterned choices of young people delineate three eras of social history in the twentieth century: the era of reciprocity (1900–1950), the era of dependence (1950–70s), and the era of autonomy (1970s-2000). We also explain why African Americans differed from the general trend; they developed distinctive transitions to adulthood in response to persistent inequality

Promises of Law: The Unlawful Dispossession of Japanese Canadians

This article is about the origins, betrayal, and litigation of a promise of law. In 1942, while it ordered the internment of over twenty-one thousand Canadians of Japanese descent, the Canadian government enacted orders in council authorizing the Custodian of Enemy Property to seize all real and personal property owned by Japanese Canadians living within coastal British Columbia. Demands from the Japanese-Canadian community and concern from within the corridors of government resulted in amendments to those orders stipulating that the Custodian held that property as a “protective” trust and would return it to Japanese Canadians at the conclusion of the war. That is not what happened. In January 1943, a new order in council authorized the sale of all property seized from Japanese Canadians. The trust abandoned, a promise broken, the Custodian sold everything. This article traces the promise to protect property from its origins in the federal bureaucracy and demands on the streets to its demise in Nakashima v Canada, the Exchequer Court decision that held that the legal promise carried no legal consequence. We argue that the failure of the promise should not obscure its history as a product of multi-vocal processes, community activism, conflicting wartime pressures, and competing conceptions of citizenship, legality, and justice. Drawing from a rich array of archival sources, our article places the legacy of the property loss of Japanese Canadians at the disjuncture between law as a blunt instrument capable of gross injustice and its role as a social institution of good faith

Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research

The choreography of community: Italian ethnicity in postwar Toronto and Philadelphia

This dissertation explores Italian neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Toronto, tracing the responses of ethnic enclaves to postwar urban change. The two cities are chosen for the very different settings they provided for postwar Italian life. In South Philadelphia, the proximity of a large African American neighborhood and the specter of urban decline framed postwar Italian ethnicity. In Toronto, by contrast, postwar Italian ethnicity took shape in the midst of prosperity and in a context where no large urban group bore the social and economic prejudice directed against African Americans in Philadelphia. I use information compiled from a range of documentary sources, institutional records, oral histories, and ethnic and local newspapers to describe the reverberations of wider urban dynamics in the social and spatial configuration of Italian community. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis accompanies other forms of interpretation to depict the diverging patterns of ethnic ties within the real estate market, church and social associational life, networks of dating and marriage, and work. I argue that Italian South Philadelphians used ethnicity to police the boundaries of a socially and economically divided city. In Toronto, where political, economic, and demographic patterns yielded a different context, Italian social bonds took a contrasting spatial form, spreading widely across the urban landscape. Italian ethnicity in Toronto operated on a metropolitan scale while in Philadelphia it marked local territory. My dissertation details the development of these very different forms of Italian ethnicity, illuminating the interwoven effects of politics, economy, and race in the choreography of daily life

The choreography of community: Italian ethnicity in postwar Toronto and Philadelphia

This dissertation explores Italian neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Toronto, tracing the responses of ethnic enclaves to postwar urban change. The two cities are chosen for the very different settings they provided for postwar Italian life. In South Philadelphia, the proximity of a large African American neighborhood and the specter of urban decline framed postwar Italian ethnicity. In Toronto, by contrast, postwar Italian ethnicity took shape in the midst of prosperity and in a context where no large urban group bore the social and economic prejudice directed against African Americans in Philadelphia. I use information compiled from a range of documentary sources, institutional records, oral histories, and ethnic and local newspapers to describe the reverberations of wider urban dynamics in the social and spatial configuration of Italian community. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis accompanies other forms of interpretation to depict the diverging patterns of ethnic ties within the real estate market, church and social associational life, networks of dating and marriage, and work. I argue that Italian South Philadelphians used ethnicity to police the boundaries of a socially and economically divided city. In Toronto, where political, economic, and demographic patterns yielded a different context, Italian social bonds took a contrasting spatial form, spreading widely across the urban landscape. Italian ethnicity in Toronto operated on a metropolitan scale while in Philadelphia it marked local territory. My dissertation details the development of these very different forms of Italian ethnicity, illuminating the interwoven effects of politics, economy, and race in the choreography of daily life