Canada happenings thread#1 - miscellaneous (Great White North community)

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Canadian Gold Miner Finds 57,000-Year-Old Wolf Pup Still Covered in Fur
https://gizmodo.com/canadian-gold-miner-...1845925916

EXCERPT: Her life was short. Scientists estimate she lived for about six or seven weeks in the underground den, before it collapsed around her. This tragedy and the permafrost that preserved her body are the reasons we know of this wolf pup’s existence approximately 57,000 years later. Zhùr, or ‘wolf’ in the Hän language, is the subject of a paper published today in Current Biology.

[...] Zhùr’s mitochondrial DNA—a type of DNA that is prolific in each cell—offered them the chance to see how she was “related to a greater genetic diversity of the species.” They found that her mitochondrial genome was not a direct match to the clade of gray wolves that exist there today. It was, however, a match to a clade comprising wolves from North America and Eurasia, with a common ancestor they estimate to have lived between 86,700 and 67,500 years ago. In other words, if her mitochondrial genome doesn’t match the wolves in the area now, this suggests that at some point some wolf populations in the region were wiped out.
Artist’s conception of a wolf mother and pup hunting.

[...] Isotopic analysis provided more insight into the pup’s diet. What they discovered surprised them: Her meals indicated they had been pulled from local rivers. “Mostly when you think about wolves—Pleistocene wolves especially—you think about them being megafaunal specialists, [such as] eating mammoths, woolly rhinos, [or] bison,” Meachen said in a video chat. “Bison is the thing I would really expect her to have been eating. The fact that she was specializing on aquatic resources was a little surprising.” [...] “She was probably killed instantaneously from the den collapse,” Meachen said. If she had merely been trapped in the den, “her ultimate cause of death probably would have been starvation.”

The story of this wolf pup doesn’t begin or end with the science. Zhùr’s name means ‘wolf’ in the language spoken by members of Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, a First Nation community who have lived in that area of the Yukon far longer than their non-native counterparts. To those in the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Zhùr’s significance is more than just an outstanding discovery: She is considered family. Reverence for the land and everything on it is an integral facet of this First Nation, whose clans include the Wolf Clan... (MORE - details)

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/EB2BuJyRzNQ

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COVID-19: B.C. records first case of variant strain detected in U.K.
https://o.canada.com/news/local-news/cov...cted-in-uk

INTRO: A variant strain of COVID-19 first detected in the United Kingdom has been identified in a Vancouver Island resident who returned from Europe earlier this month. It is the first confirmed case of the variant strain appearing in British Columbia, and officials say more could soon surface as testing results are reviewed... (MORE)

Dr. Henry explains U.K. coronavirus mutation

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/6-WAutF2fKc

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On key innovation indicators, Canada continues to underwhelm. Here are four ways to fix it
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business...-here-are/

INTRO: Canada’s Liberal government has had five years to develop and implement new policies and programs to spur innovation and prosperity in Canada. Some progress had been made – most notably with the idea, if not the cleanest execution, of the superclusters, the Strategic Innovation Fund and an array of smaller entrepreneurship and skills programs under the umbrella of the Innovation and Skills Plan. Yet, on key indicators of innovation activity such as business spending on research and development, patents and ownership, and firm growth, Canada continues to underwhelm.

No one should expect innovation initiatives to generate results quickly. But it’s not clear these initiatives are well-designed to spur substantial gains in innovation, productivity and good jobs even given enough time. There is a danger too that, given how much attention and activity there was on the innovation file in the first few years of the Liberal government, there might be little appetite for more, especially in a post-COVID-19 context where money for new initiatives is likely to be scarce. Letting the innovation file slip, however, would be a terrible omission given how central innovation will be for growth and prosperity after the pandemic.

What else can government do? Four innovation priorities should be the focus of both federal and provincial governments... (MORE)

Four Covered:

1) First, policy makers should adopt a sector-level focus and work with firms to develop innovation strategies where there is potential to develop niche advantages in fragmented global supply chains...

2) Second, innovation policy should focus as much on technology adoption as it does on technology development...

3) Third, we need a more sophisticated approach to identifying and developing the skills needed to support sector-level innovation strategies and technology adoption...

4) Finally, policy in Canada should get serious about ensuring that people are well resourced and empowered to participate in, and shape the speed and direction of, innovation...

[C C]

Cynical Sindee: Well, thanks for giving snowflakes of all population groups even more excuses to take recreational drugs. You career self-serving, "manipulated by the humanities and politics" white academic dishrags.
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This work was funded by the University of Ottawa, the Canada Research Chairs Program and the National Institutes of Health.

One psychedelic experience may lessen trauma of racial injustice
https://news.osu.edu/one-psychedelic-exp...injustice/

RELEASE: A single positive experience on a psychedelic drug may help reduce stress, depression and anxiety symptoms in Black, Indigenous and people of color whose encounters with racism have had lasting harm, a new study suggests.

The participants in the retrospective study reported that their trauma-related symptoms linked to racist acts were lowered in the 30 days after an experience with either psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms), LSD or MDMA (Ecstasy).

"Their experience with psychedelic drugs was so powerful that they could recall and report on changes in symptoms from racial trauma that they had experienced in their lives, and they remembered it having a significant reduction in their mental health problems afterward," said Alan Davis, co-lead author of the study and an assistant professor of social work at The Ohio State University.

Overall, the study also showed that the more intensely spiritual and insightful the psychedelic experience was, the more significant the recalled decreases in trauma-related symptoms were.

A growing body of research has suggested psychedelics have a place in therapy, especially when administered in a controlled setting. What previous mental health research has generally lacked, Davis noted, is a focus on people of color and on treatment that could specifically address the trauma of chronic exposure to racism.

Davis partnered with co-lead author Monnica Williams, Canada Research Chair in Mental Health Disparities at the University of Ottawa, to conduct the research.

"Currently, there are no empirically supported treatments specifically for racial trauma. This study shows that psychedelics can be an important avenue for healing," Williams said.

The study is published online in the journal Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy.

The researchers recruited participants in the United States and Canada using Qualtrics survey research panels, assembling a sample of 313 people who reported they had taken a dose of a psychedelic drug in the past that they believed contributed to "relief from the challenging effects of racial discrimination." The sample comprised adults who identified as Black, Asian, Hispanic, Native American/Indigenous Canadian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander.

Once enrolled, participants completed questionnaires collecting information on their past experiences with racial trauma, psychedelic use and mental health symptoms, and were asked to recall a memorable psychedelic experience and its short-term and enduring effects. Those experiences had occurred as recently as a few months before the study and as long ago as at least 10 years earlier.

The discrimination they had encountered included unfair treatment by neighbors, teachers and bosses, false accusations of unethical behavior and physical violence. The most commonly reported issues involved feelings of severe anger about being subjected to a racist act and wanting to "tell someone off" for racist behavior, but saying nothing instead.

Researchers asked participants to recall the severity of symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress linked to exposure to racial injustice in the 30 days before and 30 days after the experience with psychedelic drugs. Considering the probability that being subjected to racism is a lifelong problem rather than a single event, the researchers also assessed symptoms characteristic of people suffering from discrimination-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"Not everybody experiences every form of racial trauma, but certainly people of color are experiencing a lot of these different types of discrimination on a regular basis," said Davis, who also is an adjunct faculty member in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. "So in addition to depression and anxiety, we were asking whether participants had symptoms of race-based PTSD."

Participants were also asked to report on the intensity of three common kinds of experiences people have while under the influence of psychedelic drugs: a mystical, insightful or challenging experience. A mystical experience can feel like a spiritual connection to the divine, an insightful experience increases people's awareness and understanding about themselvess, and a challenging experience relates to emotional and physical reactions such as anxiety or difficulty breathing.

All participants recalled their anxiety, depression and stress symptoms after the memorable psychedelic experience were lower than they had been before the drug use. The magnitude of the positive effects of the psychedelics influenced their reduction in symptoms.

"What this analysis showed is that a more intense mystical experience and insightful experience, and a less intense challenging experience, is what was related to mental health benefits," Davis said.

The researchers noted in the paper that the study had limitations because the findings were based on participant recall and the entire sample of recruited research volunteers had reported benefits they associated with their psychedelic experience - meaning it cannot be assumed that psychedelics will help all people of color with racial trauma. Davis and Williams are working on proposals for clinical trials to further investigate the effects of psychedelics on mental health symptoms in specific populations, including Black, Indigenous and people of color.

"This was really the first step in exploring whether people of color are experiencing benefits of psychedelics and, in particular, looking at a relevant feature of their mental health, which is their experience of racial trauma," Davis said. "This study helps to start that conversation with this emerging treatment paradigm."

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Ontario to start COVID-19 vaccinations in long-term care within days: Hillier
https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2020/1...-upXlVKiUk

INTRO: Residents in long-term care will start receiving COVID-19 vaccines within days, and more than half of Ontarians – including some in the general population – are slated to be immunized by mid-summer, the head of the province's inoculation campaign said Tuesday. In an update on Ontario's COVID-19 vaccination plan, retired Gen. Rick Hillier said the province expects to receive roughly 50,000 doses of the Moderna shot on Wednesday, and distribute them to long-term care and retirement homes.

Immunizations should begin at those sites within 48 to 72 hours after the vaccine is received, he said as the province marked another record high in new daily COVID-19 infections. Another 50,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected to arrive in Ontario next month, largely earmarked for remote northern and Indigenous communities, he said. The province hopes to have inoculated more than a million health-care workers and people in other vulnerable groups by the end of the first phase of its vaccine rollout, which will last through the winter, he said.

Some 15 million vaccines are set to arrive in Ontario during the spring, and while it has not yet been determined where or to whom they will be administered during the second phase of the rollout, about 8.5 million Ontarians should be able to get the shot by mid-summer, Hillier said. "I think we can get to a lot of mainstream Ontario by late July," he said... (MORE)

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Quebec Liberal vacationing down south despite repeated warnings to stay home
https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2020/1...-vDNVVKiUl

RELEASE: Quebec Liberal member Pierre Arcand is vacationing with his wife in the Caribbean despite warnings from the federal and provincial governments to stay home during the pandemic. The Canadian Press has obtained a statement from Arcand, who led the Quebec Liberals between 2018-20, saying he is in Barbados, a place he called "one of the safest places in the world today."

Canada and Quebec have repeatedly asked Canadians not to travel abroad during the pandemic, especially in the winter, when the country is reporting record numbers of infections and hospitals are overburdened by COVID patients. Arcand, who represents a Montreal constituency in the national assembly, says he took two COVID-19 tests, on Dec. 22 and Dec. 27, and was negative. He adds he will "scrupulously" respect the 14-day self-isolation period required by the federal government for travellers who return to the country from abroad.

According to Radio-Canada, which first reported the news, Arcand was spotted by a witness in the Glitter Bay district of the country. Arcand says in his statement he "regrets this decision given the current situation in Quebec and the respect we owe to health-care workers."

[Zinjanthropos]

I know there's vote buying going on but I can't find a word for times when politicians throw them away. Arcand had to have a good reason, at least in his mind, that he had to go. So there's probably more to it then a selfish act. Maybe when back and after quarantine he'll apologize to constituents, throw God into it and try and get away unharmed politically. I'll have to check, maybe he's got a trophy wife who gave him the ultimatum. Who knows, he could just be stupid.

[Syne]

I know there's vote buying going on but I can't find a word for times when politicians throw them away. Arcand had to have a good reason, at least in his mind, that he had to go. So there's probably more to it then a selfish act. Maybe when back and after quarantine he'll apologize to constituents, throw God into it and try and get away unharmed politically. I'll have to check, maybe he's got a trophy wife who gave him the ultimatum. Who knows, he could just be stupid.

That is simple to explain. It's the elite mindset of "rules for thee but not for me". They think they are beyond the rules they make, and their arrogance precludes them from predicting either getting caught or losing voters. Granted, most leftist politicians know their voters are uninformed and have very short memories. So as long as they can keep the legacy media in their pocket, they're usually immune to their own hypocrisy.

[Zinjanthropos]

I know there's vote buying going on but I can't find a word for times when politicians throw them away. Arcand had to have a good reason, at least in his mind, that he had to go. So there's probably more to it then a selfish act. Maybe when back and after quarantine he'll apologize to constituents, throw God into it and try and get away unharmed politically. I'll have to check, maybe he's got a trophy wife who gave him the ultimatum. Who knows, he could just be stupid.

That is simple to explain. It's the elite mindset of "rules for thee but not for me". They think they are beyond the rules they make, and their arrogance precludes them from predicting either getting caught or losing voters. Granted, most leftist politicians know their voters are uninformed and have very short memories. So as long as they can keep the legacy media in their pocket, they're usually immune to their own hypocrisy.

Seems he and his wife have been heavily involved in the media throughout their life. So he may have a few connections or knows how to manipulate viewers/listeners. Either way he didn't seem too worried about negative fallout. A little history of the couple....

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Dominique_Chaloult

[Syne]

That is simple to explain. It's the elite mindset of "rules for thee but not for me". They think they are beyond the rules they make, and their arrogance precludes them from predicting either getting caught or losing voters. Granted, most leftist politicians know their voters are uninformed and have very short memories. So as long as they can keep the legacy media in their pocket, they're usually immune to their own hypocrisy.

Seems he and his wife have been heavily involved in the media throughout their life. So he may have a few connections or knows how to manipulate viewers/listeners. Either way he didn't seem too worried about negative fallout.

Since there's so many leftists in media, they don't even need any real contact or involvement. They just share enough ideology for those in media to automatically provide cover.

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Elon Musk (a Canadian citizen among other naturalizations) hits back at Viasat's claims that Starlink poses a threat to the environment, saying SpaceX's broadband only 'poses a hazard' to the communication firm's profits
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...nment.html

SUMMARY POINTS: Communication firm Viasat is petitioning the FCC about SpaceX's Starlink. Viasat claims the internet constellation poses environmental hazards. The company said it is not just going after SpaceX with this petition. The petition is aimed at any company looking to build a mega constellation. It says that if collisions were to happen the debris would pollute low orbit. Elon Musk heard of the petition and took to Twitter to hit back at the claims. 'Starlink 'poses a hazard' to Viasat's profits, more like it,' Musk shared. Viasat says it is doing this now because SpaceX is set to move 2,800 satellites... (MORE - details)

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The Canadian spaceport launch vehicle year end rankings
https://spaceq.ca/the-canadian-spaceport...-rankings/

INTRO: As 2020 comes to an end and we publish our 3rd edition of the Canadian Spaceport Launch Vehicle Power Rankings, we ask ourselves is the glass half empty or half full? That perception is up to you. Event though it's been a very difficult year with the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the globe, there are signs for optimism.

It's also a time for the government to step up and support a Canadian spaceport. Standing on the sidelines won't do anymore, the government needs to keep moving forward with implementing its space strategy, and that includes supporting a Canadian spaceport. We discuss how this can be achieved in a cost-effective way. (MORE - subscription required)

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Ontario finance minister resigns after tropical vacation
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/...n-74992824

INTRO: The finance minister for Canada's most populous province resigned Thursday after going on a Caribbean vacation during the pandemic and seemingly trying to hide the fact by sending social media posts showing him in a sweater before a fireplace. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he had accepted Rod Phillips’s resignation as minister hours after Phillips returned home from a more than two-week stay on the island of St. Barts despite government guidelines urging people to avoid nonessential travel.

"Travelling over the holidays was the wrong decision, and I once again offer my unreserved apology,” Phillips said in a statement confirming his resignation... (MORE)