“Happy is the country that has no history,” a proverb states, as history more often than not recounts acts of violence and greed and dishonesty. Happiness is but a dream for Canada, according to James Daschuk, because the malice that…
Sean Carleton, Toronto Star, July 9, 2017 On June 21, National Aboriginal Day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government will change the name of Langevin Block, the building across from Parliament Hill, to the Office of the…
It’s been a tough weekend for us in the County, so I hesitated to publish this open statement to Council re: the stalled public consultation on the statue of Macdonald Holding Court. I ended up thinking that Council needed to…
Introduction It’s only fair that supporters of Macdonald Holding Court have been seeking the most favourable terms for their side’s participation in Council’s review of their statue’s future in Prince Edward County. I’d say, they’re faring fairly well. David Warrick,…
Two days ago, David Warrick (The Macdonald Project) invited friends and acquaintances by email to sign his petition to “support the continued presence of the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald and plaque in front of the Picton Library.” I’m…
Prince Edward County’s municipal council (Council) has announced that the Prince Edward Heritage Advisory Committee (PEHAC) is expected to lead a public discussion about the Macdonald statue’s future in Picton. The Agenda Package for the PEHAC’s next meeting on July…
On November 16, 2016, Senator Murray Sinclair spoke about Indigenous perspectives on racism to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Public Affairs. In this video recording of his address (beginning at 00:18:00), Senator Sinclair confronts Sir John A. Macdonald’s clearly…
Canada Day 2020 marks the fifth anniversary of the unveiling of a bronze statue of John A. Macdonald Holding Court (MHC) on Picton Main Street. Supporters and critics of MHC disagree strongly about Macdonald’s legacy and what honouring him with…
On November 26, 2019, PEC Council received a deputation from Paul Allen and comments from four members of the audience requesting that the County defer the re-installation of the statue of Macdonald “Holding Court” on Picton Main Street until there’s…
To date, we’ve published four resources to assist researchers interested in studying Long-Term Care (LTC) Homes and Retirement Homes in Ontario: Consolidated Dataset of LTC Homes (May 9, 2020) Consolidated Dataset of Retirement Homes (May 14, 2020) Index to Reports…
For the foreseeable future, I’m wrapping-up my work on Long-Term Care (LTC) Homes and Retirement Homes in Ontario. I’ve published four resources that I hope will prove helpful for researchers: Consolidated dataset of LTC Homes (May 9, 2020) Consolidated dataset…
On May 14, 2020, we released a consolidated database of 766 Retirement Homes in Ontario. Today we’re supplementing this database with an Index to Inspection Reports issued for these Retirement Homes between September 2012 and April 2020. Primary Source Our…
On May 9, 2020, we released a consolidated database of 626 Long-Term Care (LTC) Homes in Ontario, derived from information published by the provincial government. Today we’re supplementing this database with an Index to Inspection Reports issued for LTC Homes…
On May 9, 2020, we released a consolidated dataset of Long-Term Care (LTC) Homes in Ontario, derived from information published by the provincial government. We wanted to update the database and describe our primary sources, methods, and final results. Primary…
On May 7, 2020, we released a database of Long-Term Care (LTC) Homes in Ontario, derived from information published by the provincial government. We wanted to update the database and describe our primary sources, methods, and final results. Primary Sources…
UPDATE: In the course of documenting my methodology for creating the database of licensed Long-Term Care (LTC) Homes in Ontario, I discovered that one of my software scripts had inadvertently skipped over entries for about 20 LTC Homes. I’ll post…
Yesterday I credited the Ontario government with starting to include more detailed summaries of COVID-19 cases in Long Term Care homes in its daily updates. I also raised concerns about remaining gaps in the government’s reporting. I’ve been asked to…
Today, the Ontario government began publishing summaries of COVID-19 cases in Long Term Care (LTC) homes in the province, based upon Daily Reports submitted by LTCs to the Ministry of Long Term Care (MoLTC). Sharing this information is a significant…
On March 30, 2020, the Ontario government enhanced its daily reporting of COVID-19 cases in the province. We summarized how these enhancements – especially the daily epidemiological summary – might address our critique of the government’s earlier reporting. Shortly after introducing its daily epidemiological…
On March 30, 2020, the Ontario government enhanced its daily reporting of COVID-19 cases in the province. We summarized how these enhancements – especially the daily epidemiological summary – might address our critique of the government’s earlier reporting. Shortly after introducing its daily epidemiological…
On March 30, 2020, the Ontario government enhanced its daily reporting of COVID-19 cases in the province. We summarized how these enhancements – especially the daily epidemiological summary – might address our critique of the government’s earlier reporting. Shortly after…
Some of our neighbours haven’t been able to afford Internet access at home for a long time. Their kids have had to make do with free, open WiFi connections to the Internet that’s been made available at their school or…
Yesterday I shared some concerns about Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) efforts to inform the public about confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province. Today the MOHLTC began to address those concerns. The MOHLTC is now…
The Ontario government’s Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) has been posting twice daily (at 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.) updates on the status of COVID-19 cases in the province. The updates have included (1) a statistical summary…
An agreement struck in 2017 between Indigenous Services Canada and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation on faster funding for suicide prevention projects is “making a huge impact,” says NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler. What’s known as the Choose Life initiative created a…
A guide to fighting lies, fake news, and chaos online, The Verge, December 2019. Inside the hate factory: How Facebook fuels far-right profit, The Guardian, December 2019. UK trade leaks: Operators keen to hide their identities leaked UK/US trade documents…
Good isn’t good enough, Ben Green, November 2019. Geographies of algorithmic violence: Redlining the smart city, Sara Safransky, November 2019. In our own words: Systemic inquiry into the lived experience of children and young people in the Victorian out-of-home care…
Annual Reports (Excerpts) A Bold Voice: Annual Report 2016-2017 Starting in a “good way”: towards trusting relationships with Indigenous peoples Our strategic focus: The OHRC will embody human rights by engaging in and sustaining trusting relationships with First Nations, Métis…
Last Fall, I had the privilege of working with the senior leadership, management, and direct-service providers at the Ranch Ehrlo Society, in Saskatchewan. Ranch Ehrlo delivers a wide range of accredited mental health and developmental services on campuses located in Regina,…
I’ve had the privilege of consulting recently to three children and youth mental health services (two in Ontario and one in Saskatchewan) and becoming familiar with their accreditation by three different authorities: Council on Accreditation (COA). Canadian Centre for Accreditation…
The Government of Ontario is rightly in the soup for having justified (if not designed) its utter disruption of the province’s services for children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder on the basis of a single, apparently known-to-be-inflated statistic (23,000 kids…
Today the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families launched its self-care web page containing eighty-five mental health self-care activities for young people. The self-care resource was developed by the Common Room and young people from the mental health support group Hearts & Minds….
Yesterday, The Star reported that the Ontario government is considering a plan to consolidate more than twenty healthcare agencies into one “super agency”. The goal would be improving the integration of health services while trimming a bloated bureaucracy. One of…
It’s fashionable – almost de rigueur – these days for public services to outfit themselves as innovators. A case in point: the 2018 Annual Conference of Children’s Mental Health Ontario (CMHO) advertised over fourty keynote addresses and workshops on “Innovations…
Young people sometimes go into hospital for their mental health, to help them get the right level of care and support to help them on their way to recovery. A thoughtful guide – published today by Young Minds (UK) –…
Wise interventions (WIs) are precise, theory- and research-based techniques that address specific psychological processes to help people flourish across diverse life domains. WIs emphasize subjective meaning-making: how people make sense of themselves and social worlds. In turn, they can spur…
Introduction Last week the NHS published its Long Term Plan for health services in England. The plan recognizes the significance of mental health challenges among children and youth (0 to 18 years), including: Mental health problems often develop early and,…
Ontario’s Open Data Directive is intended to maximize access to government data by requiring all data to be made public, unless it is exempt for legal, privacy, security, confidentiality or commercially-sensitive reasons. From time to time, I’ve collaborated with officials…