Education as a Political Act: Community-based Participatory Research with Union Women

The Prairie School for Union Women (PSUW), now celebrating its fifteenth year of operation, is unique in its popular education approach while remaining the only labour school in Canada specifically for women. During the annual school, held in a retreat-like setting in Saskatchewan, groups of 60-160 women engage in a non-formal education experience that emphasizes adult learning principles of facilitation and mentoring, and support for activist practices. The embodiment and development of feminist popular education2 curricula and methodologies in the School‘s operation is central to this experience. The study, Innovations, Opportunities and Challenges: The Story of the Prairie School for Union Women for which I was a researcher working closely with the School‘s Steering Committee, is the first empirical study to explore how well the goals of the school ―to develop women‘s personal and leadership skills, to build solidarity among women workers, and to increase knowledge about the labour movement‖ are being met

Caught up in power: Exploring discursive frictions in community research

This article outlines the debate around the emancipatory claims of community-based research (CBR) and identifies discursive frictions as a pivotal point upon which much of CBR practice revolves. Using a Foucauldian theoretical lens, we suggest that CBR is neither inherently emancipatory nor repressive, but that research outcomes are more often a product of power asymmetries in CBR relationships. To illustrate how power asymmetries in research relationships produce discursive frictions, several studies from our work and the literature are presented. The article provides examples of CBR relationships between the researcher and community members and relationships within the community to illustrate how power asymmetries and discursive frictions in these relationships dynamically influence research outcomes and thus alert researchers to the need to address power asymmetries not just before initiating CBR projects, but during CBR projects as well. We interrogate how power asymmetries and discursive frictions operate and are constructed in CBR in an attempt to highlight how research might be conducted more effectively and ethically. Finally, we indicate that some of the tensions and challenges associated with CBR might be ameliorated by the use of participatory facilitation methodologies, such as photo-voice and story circle discussion groups, that draw attention to power asymmetries and purposefully use more creative participatory tools to restructure power relationships and ultimately address the inequities that exist in the research process. Because CBR is continually caught up in power dynamics, we hope that highlighting some examples might offer an opportunity for increased dialogue and critical reflection on its claims of empowerment and emancipation.Keywords: discursive friction, Foucault, participatory methodologies, power asymmetries, research relationships, emancipatory research

Women and Climate Change Impacts and Action in Canada: Feminist, Indigenous and Intersectional Perspectives

The report was produced through a collaboration of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women and the Alliance for Intergenerational Resilience, with funding from Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Climate Change (ACW) and its predecessor project, Work in a Warming World (W3). The researchers found that women face a double threat from social-economic barriers that leave them bearing the brunt of climate change impacts, while being denied a role in developing policies and programs to mitigate climate change - the example given is employment in renewable energy, where women are underrepresented globally. The report points out that the need for women to be acknowledged as agents of change.Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Chang

Influenza Infection in Wild Raccoons

Raccoons can transmit avian and human influenza Influenza Infection in Wild Raccoon

Clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and surveillance of BAP1 tumour predisposition syndrome

BRCA1-associated protein-1 (BAP1) is a recognised tumour suppressor gene. Germline BAP1 pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants are associated with predisposition to multiple tumours, including uveal melanoma, malignant pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, renal cell carcinoma and specific non-malignant neoplasms of the skin, as part of the autosomal dominant BAP1-tumour predisposition syndrome. The overall lifetime risk for BAP1 carriers to develop at least one BAP1-associated tumour is up to 85%, although due to ascertainment bias, current estimates of risk are likely to be overestimated. As for many rare cancer predisposition syndromes, there is limited scientific evidence to support the utility of surveillance and, therefore, management recommendations for BAP1 carriers are based on expert opinion. To date, European recommendations for BAP1 carriers have not been published but are necessary due to the emerging phenotype of this recently described syndrome and increased identification of BAP1 carriers via large gene panels or tumour sequencing. To address this, the Clinical Guideline Working Group of the CanGene-CanVar project in the United Kingdom invited European collaborators to collaborate to develop guidelines to harmonize surveillance programmes within Europe. Recommendations with respect to BAP1 testing and surveillance were achieved following literature review and Delphi survey completed by a core group and an extended expert group of 34 European specialists including Geneticists, Ophthalmologists, Oncologists, Dermatologists and Pathologists. It is recognised that these largely evidence-based but pragmatic recommendations will evolve over time as further data from research collaborations informs the phenotypic spectrum and surveillance outcomes.</p

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Beyond the trinity of gender, race, and class. Further exploring intersectionality in adult education

Research exploring the gendered dimensions of adult learning has blossomed in the past two decades. Despite this trend, intersectional approaches in adult learning, research, and teaching remain limited primarily to the intersection of gender, race, and class. Meanwhile, intersectionality theories are more diverse, and include discussions of social structures, geographies, and histories that serve to build richer, nuanced descriptions of how privilege and oppression are experienced. Because the purpose of intersectionality is to understand how social identities and positions are constructed and to challenge the structures of power that oppress particular social groups, this approach is important for feminist and social justice educators. We, the Canadian authors of this manuscript, posit that adult education should move beyond intersectionality that focuses only on the trinity of gender + race + class to consider the other inequalities and the true complexities of representation and collective identities. By exploring literature in feminism, adult education, and intersectionality, we illustrate a gap at the core of adult education for social justice. We draw upon two examples of national research with and by the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women to illustrate how intersectionality is understood and works in practice. (DIPF/Orig.

Gender, Justice, and the Indian Residential School Claims Process

Survivors of Indian Residential Schools in Canada are involved in one of the largest compensation processes in the world. A significant component in the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) is the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), an out-of-court process aimed at resolving claims related to serious physical and sexual abuse suffered at residential schools. This article discusses a community–university research collaboration, which set out to explore how women involved in the IAP, including Survivors, support workers, lawyers, and adjudicators, understood the capacity of the model to facilitate healing. The results suggest attention to several aspects of policy development including representations of the body and sexuality, impacts of child abuse and trauma, and colonial histories of power and control, in addition to healing and training strategies