Assisted Reproduction Policy in Federal States: What Canada Should Learn From Australia

Rapid advances in assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) confront policymakers worldwide with dilemmas that touch on the fundamentals of human existence — life, death, and sexuality. Canada, following the lead of non-federal Britain, spent 15 years developing the comprehensive, national Assisted Human Reproduction Act (2004), only to have the Supreme Court strike much of it down in 2010 for invading provincial jurisdiction. As Canadians return to square one on many ART issues, they should seek inspiration from Australia, where the lead role of the states in this policy area has not prevented significant coordination on matters of broad consensus. Like their federal cousins down under, Canadians who wish to harmonize ART policy in a constitutionally acceptable manner must now rely more heavily on legislative modeling among provinces, intergovernmental agreements, and non-statutory (even nongovernmental) guidelines

New Practical Synthesis of the Exceptional Musk Odorants (R)-Muscone and (R,Z)-5-Muscenone

Herein we describe a short and practical synthesis of the exceptional musk odorants (R)-muscone and (R,Z)-5-muscenone from a readily available achiral macrocyclic diketone. The key step of the synthesis is the first sodium N-methylephedrate mediated enantioselective aldol condensation reaction (up to 76% ee). This new type of reaction proceeds via a dynamic kinetic resolution of an aldol intermediate

Biodiversity offsets and caribou conservation in Alberta: opportunities and challenges

The federal recovery strategy for boreal woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) sets a goal of self-sustaining populations for all caribou ranges across Canada. All caribou herds in Alberta are currently designated as not self-sustaining and the recovery strategy requires an action plan to achieve self-sustaining status. At the same time, continued natural resource extraction in caribou ranges may be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Some regulatory bodies have recognized an opportunity for biodiversity offsets to help meet the caribou recovery strategy’s goals while still permitting economic benefits of development. In this review, we evaluate offset opportunities for caribou in Alberta and practical impediments for implementation. We conclude that a number of actions to offset impacts of development and achieve no net loss or net positive impact for caribou are theoretically feasible (i.e., if implemented they should work), including habitat restoration and manipulations of the large mammal predator-prey system. However, implementation challenges are substantial and include a lack of mechanisms for setting aside some resources for long periods of time, public opposition to predator control, and uncertainty associated with loss-gain calculations. A framework and related policy for offsets are currently lacking in Alberta and their development is urgently needed to guide successful design and implementation of offsets for caribou

Dialogue: Clarified and Reconsidered

Controversies about constitutional “dialogue” often stem from disagreement over the concept itself. The metaphor’s meaning and attendant consequences differ depending on whether it reflects the assumptions of judicial interpretive supremacy or coordinate interpretation. By combining that distinction with the contrast between weak-form and strong-form rights review, this article creates an integrated framework for clarifying dialogic variation across such jurisdictions as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. We apply this framework most intensely to the Canadian case and bring differences between several dialogic forms—especially the difference between “clarification dialogue” and “reconsideration dialogue”—into sharper relief than is common in the literature. The classification of dialogic types revealed by the Canadian experience can, we suggest, illuminate analysis in other jurisdictions

Feeding competition and group size in Central American howler monkeys (alouatta pigra) at Monkey River, Belize

Bibliography: p. 105-117The Central American black howler (Alouatta pigra) occurs in surprisingly small social groups, for reasons that are not well understood. To test whether indirect within­group feeding competition constrains group size, I examined the effects of group size on day journey length, activity budgets, and group spread; compared food availability and dietary quality with energy expenditure; and evaluated the results in light of influential ecological constraints models. 45 full day follows were completed on 3 groups of wild A. pigra varying in size from 3 to 7 individuals. Food availability for all groups was similar, but group size was not associated with increased activity levels or day journey length, nor did any group experience variation in energy expenditure with changes in food availability, indicating that feeding competition is not acting to constrain group size at this site. Consequently, I suggest that other factors (possibly social ones) are responsible for small group size