Tag: VP Research and Innovation

Internal YFile sub-tag

June is National Indigenous History Month and June 21st is National Indigenous Peoples Day

Photograph by Marissa Magneson
Métis (Otipemisiwak) artist Christi Belcourt
Artwork by Métis (Otipemisiwak) artist Christi Belcourt

Faith Desmoulin is a student in the Indigenous Studies undergraduate program. She is also the Student Success Mentor Lead (Indigenous Student Success & Transition Assistant) at the Centre for Aboriginal Student Services at York University. Faith is an Aniishnabekwe from the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island. She wrote the following article about the significance of National Indigenous History Month and National Indigenous Peoples Day for YFile.

In the month of June, many celebrations will be taking place and livestreaming across Canada. This provides an opportunity for people throughout Canada to recognize the strengths of present-day Indigenous peoples and communities. There will be a livestreaming of Pow Wows, performances, and much more. This month is significant and it is important to understand why should we celebrate. 

What is National Indigenous History Month?

June is a time to celebrate and learn by listening and acknowledging the land that you are on. Many Canadians are not aware of the fact that there are many Indigenous nations across Canada, each having a unique language, customs, art and dance. June provides the opportunity for all Canadians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to reflect upon and learn the history, sacrifices, cultures, and contributions of Indigenous people. According to the 2016 Census, the Indigenous population of Canada was 1,673,780 or 4.9 per cent of the population. Of this, 977,230 were First Nations, 587,545 were Métis, and 65,025 were Inuit. The urban Indigenous population of Toronto is 46,315 or 0.8 per cent of the population.

The history of First Nations, Métis and Inuit played an important role in the establishment of Canada and many non-Indigenous Canadians may not be aware of this history. As first peoples of Canada, they are part of the history and continue to play an important role in its development and future. Take this opportunity to learn more about the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

What is National Indigenous Peoples Day?

In 1996, the Governor General of Canada, Roméo LeBlanc, proclaimed that the federal government would recognize National Aboriginal Day on June 21st. In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau officially changed the name to “National Indigenous Peoples Day”.

For many generations, Indigenous peoples and communities have celebrated their culture and heritage on this day due to the significance of the summer solstice as the longest day of the year. Indigenous peoples welcome all Canadians to join in the celebrations.

Here is a list of National Indigenous Peoples Day livestreaming events and links to learn more:

Livestreaming events:

The month of June will see various workshops, teachings, art performances, and much more in appreciating and celebrating National Indigenous History Month, from the comforts of your own home! https://summersolsticefestivals.ca/.

June 22, Indigenous Peoples Day live tune in from home: https://indigenousdaylive.ca/.

Watch Pow Wows live: https://www.powwows.com/main/watch-pow-wows-live-powwows-com/.

Local events and livestreaming:

The Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts (ANDPVA): https://andpva.ca/.

To learn more, follow these links:

York PhD student researching LGBTQ2S older persons in long-term care homes

A York University graduate student is conducting groundbreaking research in a largely uncharted area, the lives of LGBTQ2S older persons in long-term care (LTC) homes.

Stephanie Jonsson, a PhD student in the Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies program, is a queer woman whose research specializes on the healthcare needs of LGBTQ2S older persons. Her research has led her to LTC homes in Ontario, where exclusionary legislation means many LGBTQ2S older adults are struggling to have their housing needs fully met.

Jonsson’s interest in this area grew while she was working at a for-profit assisted living centre in Toronto, where she learned that discussions about the sexuality of older adults often went unexplored, resulting in some of them feeling invisible.

Stephanie Jonsson
Stephanie Jonsson

“Hearing all these little stories, I started reading more about the isolation that LGBTQ2S seniors experience, because a lot of the times they have to go back in the closet when they go into retirement homes,” Jonsson said. “There’s a lot of old-world views in retirement homes so homophobia and heterosexism are quite rampant on the resident side and the staff side.”

In general, Jonsson explained, LGBTQ2S people are confronted with existing systemic issues in their everyday life, and in LTC homes, these conditions are magnified.

“There’s just this long history of LGBTQ2S adults not trusting,” she explained. “There is a distrust and discomfort between them and health care providers because of how they’ve been pathologized, criminalized and then now they’re experiencing all that homophobia, heterosexism and transphobia again in long-term care or end-of-life care.”

As a research assistant at the University of Windsor, Jonsson worked on a study that focused on evaluating the Responsive Behaviour Program, a quality improvement project that involved reviewing all 657 LTC homes in Ontario. While reviewing the reports, Jonsson noted how the Ontario Resident Bill of Rights (Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007), a bill that outlines how people in LTC homes should be protected, did not explicitly include protections for gender and sexual diversity.

“This was a concern to me because the legislation did not incorporate language that protected individuals from racism, sexism, homophobia and/or transphobia,” Jonsson said.

Jonsson says that in Canada, LTC homes are largely privatized and expensive. Public LTC homes, on the other hand, make up a small percentage of sites and aren’t always LGBTQ2S-friendly. Often, because bed choice is not optional, LGBTQ2S older persons find themselves with a less comprehensive list of homes that meet their needs.

For example, Jonsson’s research indicates in Toronto there are 10 public LTC homes, three of which say they are LGBTQ2S-friendly. One home that has a track record of being LGBTQ2S-friendly is Fudger House. Part of this LTC home’s success is because it references the The Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care LGBTQ2S tool kit, an optional resource that suggests ways to improve care and create services that consider the needs of LGBTQ2S people.

To become more LGBTQ2S-friendly, LTC homes, their residents and staff would benefit from using this resource and creating a more welcoming atmosphere that considers individual needs, Jonsson suggested.

However, Johnsson maintained policies have to echo these improvements. As such, her research has shifted towards policy changes within the Resident Bill of Rights. She has recently completed her comprehensive exams and is now a PhD candidate. Jonsson plans to work with organizations like the Senior Pride Networks to include community perspectives on the Resident Bill of Rights into her research.

For example, one article states individuals have the right to participate in decision-making, yet, Jonsson explains, many times services are fragmented, not patient-centred and standardized to serve as many people as possible without individual consideration.

“My hope is that through that research, I could develop a policy that could be put forward that could change that legislation,” she said.

Effective change, she added, also needs community participation. Jonsson believes her work is not insular and younger LGBTQ2S people advocating for older persons will lead to quicker implementation of inclusive policies.

“If we want those homes to get better and to address our needs and for them not treat us like profit pawns, we need to advocate for those changes and that means volunteering and being involved in these communities at any level,” Jonsson said.

Senate approves two new ORUs: Bee Ecology and Indigenous Knowledges & Languages

Featured image for the postdoc research story shows the word research in black type on a white background
Featured image for the postdoc research story shows the word research in black type on a white background

The Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI) is pleased to announce that the Senate approved two new Organized Research Units (ORUs) in late May 2020:

  • The Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (BEEc), which comes into effect on July 1; and
  • The Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages (CIKL), which comes into effect on July 1, 2021.
Amir Asif

“With these important additions, York University will be home to 27 ORUs, which have a strong history of highly innovative and collaborative research. Steeped in York’s tradition of collegial interdisciplinarity, ORUs serve as synergistic hubs for participatory research programs that bring together expertise from across disciplines,” said Vice-President Research & Innovation Amir Asif.

The Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation

The BEEc will pursue interdisciplinary, world-class research on the biology and health of bees as well as their environmental, economic and societal implications.

This ORU will involve a critical mass of researchers working to address diverse aspects of the ongoing bee health crises, attract and train future leaders in the field, educate the public and more.

The Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation will bring together bee research across campus at York, from social scientists to mathematicians.
The Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation will bring together bee research across campus at York, from social scientists to mathematicians

Celia Haig-Brown, associate vice-president research, underscores the increasing public understanding of the critical roles that bees play in pollination. She is particularly enthusiastic about the many different disciplines involved in bee research at York – from social scientists to biologists to mathematicians. “This new ORU strengthens York’s existing leadership in the area and focuses longstanding research in new ways as it draws on so many disciplines,” she stated.

The Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages

The CIKL supports research involving both traditional and contemporary knowledges, as care-taken, shared and created by Indigenous scholars located in York University and Indigenous knowledge holders from communities.

The aim of CIKL will be to facilitate research and knowledge production and dissemination, by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, that re-centers Indigenous knowledges, languages, practices and ways of being. In doing so, it will affirm Indigenous knowledges as vital sources of insight for the world and for future generations.

Métis (Otipemisiwak) artist Christi Belcourt
The Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages will facilitate research and knowledge production and dissemination, by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars. Image credit: Métis (Otipemisiwak) artist Christi Belcourt

Haig-Brown emphasizes that this new ORU will create a space to bring often-isolated Indigenous faculty together. “This is a great step in terms of York’s commitment to Indigenous faculty, researchers and students,” she said. “It has been one of my goals to continually contribute to creating space for Indigenous faculty and researchers to shape what goes on here at the University.”

Celia Haig-Brown
Celia Haig-Brown

She also emphasizes the importance of language. “The restoration of languages, which residential schools attempted to destroy, is integral to bringing Indigenous knowledges into their rightful place within the University.”

Senate has also approved the five year re-charters for three existing ORUs: the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR), the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) and Centre for Research on Biomolecular Interactions (CRBI).

More information on York’s ORUs, visit the VPRI website.

Research investigates potential benefits, limitations of using contact tracing apps

As long as contact tracing apps are carefully constructed and the information they reveal is appropriately safeguarded, such apps may, in conjunction with actual human tracing, have a role to play in the country’s public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, says a team of experts from York University, the University of Toronto and Ontario Tech University.

In a research paper titled “Test, Trace, and Isolate: COVID-19 and the Canadian Constitution,” the seven authors consider the potential benefits and limitations of using contact tracing apps to identify people who have been exposed to COVID-19. They look at the privacy implications of different app design choices, and how those privacy impacts could be evaluated under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which provides a framework for balancing competing rights and interests.

Francois Tanguay Renaud
Francois Tanguay-Renaud

“We know that contact tracing is essential to controlling infectious disease and has a central role to play in determining when we can safely loosen COVID-19 physical distancing measures and reopen the economy,” said Professor François Tanguay-Renaud of York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School.

“Before the country goes further down the digital contact tracing road, we wanted to look at several issues surrounding the use of contact tracing apps including how to integrate such apps and human contact tracing; possible infringement of privacy rights; and the need to balance various Charter rights and values.”

Tanguay-Renaud wrote the paper with Lisa M. Austin, Vincent Chiao and Martha Shaffer, University of Toronto Faculty of Law; Beth Coleman, University of Toronto, ICCIT/Faculty of Information; David Lie, University of Toronto, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Andrea Slane, Ontario Tech University, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities.

The authors had an extensive hour-long briefing (via Zoom) with federal Justice Minister David Lametti May 29.

“I must say that he was very receptive and liked many aspects of our paper. In particular, the need to take seriously into account the effectiveness of any app in tracing contacts with COVID cases, when assessing the necessity and proportionality of any infringement of Charter-protected interests, such as privacy, that such apps would likely involve,” Tanguay-Renaud said.

The study looks at the potential benefits and limitations of using contact tracing apps to identify people who have been exposed to COVID-19

The paper makes three major observations about the efficacy of contact tracing apps:

• Improving the efficiency of human contact tracing
The public health goal of a contact tracing app should be to integrate with human contact tracing and make it more efficient rather than replace it, the paper notes. “We need to keep humans in the loop to ensure accuracy and to maintain the important social functions of contact tracing, which includes educating people about risks and helping them access social supports.”

• Privacy choices
The paper points out that currently the most privacy-protective design for contact tracing apps makes use of proximity data (via Bluetooth) through a decentralized design, and that this method is receiving significant technical support from Apple and Google.

“However, this method fails to integrate with the human contact tracing system. Other options, such as the use of location logs or a centralized registration system, are more aligned with the public health goal of integration with human contact tracing but raise additional privacy questions.” What’s more, Google and Apple “prohibit app developers both from utilizing centralized methods and from utilizing location data.”

• Constitutional balancing
Our privacy commissioners have discussed the need to assess these privacy choices according to the principles of necessity and proportionality, the paper notes. “The Canadian Charter requires that we choose the most privacy-protective app design that meets the public health goal, so long as the benefits of meeting this goal outweigh its deleterious effects on privacy. This requires a reasonable belief in the efficacy of such an app. It also requires an assessment of the nature of the benefits, which are not just the economic benefits of reopening the economy.”

Current restrictions on movement and work are themselves limitations of basic rights and liberties, the paper maintains. Individuals who self-isolate in situations of poverty, precarious housing, mental health challenges, abusive relationships or other vulnerabilities, face challenges that affect their security of the person. There are also broader effects on equality and human flourishing. “If contact tracing, enhanced by an app, reduces the need for restrictions in the form of self-isolation, it promotes other Charter rights and values (for example, security of the person), which must be balanced against the potential infringement of privacy rights.”

An electronic copy of the paper is available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=3608823.

New blog features work of York faculty and students on COVID-19 virus and its aftermath

large grafix of blog
large grafix for blog

The Marxist Studies in a Global and Asian Perspective (MSGAP) blog titled “York Left Consortium: Reflections on Capitalism’s Half-Life” serves as an accessible location for written interventions of various sorts relating to COVID-19 and its aftermath on the part of leftist faculty and grad students at York, as well as guest contributors.

Robert Latham

The blog is curated by York University faculty Robert Latham (Politics) and Raju Das (Geography), and includes both short blog posts and longer thought pieces and speculations.

York and other universities in Canada, the U.S., Western Europe and across other regions of the world, are mobilizing faculty in the natural sciences and closely allied fields to address various issues around the novel coronavirus such as potential treatments or public health practices, said Latham.

“York is especially known worldwide for the strengths of its politically progressive social justice-focused faculty and graduate students across the social sciences, law, humanities and the arts,” said Das. “Together they have an incredible array of expertise and experience relating to the social, political, economic and environmental issues in society that are brought into relief by the virus and its anticipated aftermath such as economic depression, increasing state retrenchment and/or oppression, and expanding environmental degradation.”

Raju Das

The initial featured pieces include those from a range of York faculty and grad students coming from various sources. Two pieces written originally for the blog include “COVID-19, Mass Consciousness, and Left Organizing” by Latham and “Death from COVID-19, Collateral Damage, and the U.S. Capitalist-State” by guest contributor Vince Montes. New pieces will appear on a regular basis. There is also the possibility of the site turning into a longstanding effort beyond the current moment associated with COVID-19.

Links from faculty and graduate students to their existing writings on websites, or contributions of original reflections for the blog are very welcome. Contact via email rajudas@yorku.ca and rlatham1@yorku.ca.

MSGAP is a research initiative within the York Centre for Asian Research at York University. MSGAP is Marxist-oriented and is open to all frameworks on the left and which can be or are in conversation with the Marxist tradition. For more information, visit http://marxiststudies.blog.yorku.ca/.

SSHRC Partnership Grant, just under $2.5 M, awarded to AMPD Professor Laura Levin

Laura Levin
Laura Levin

Professor Laura Levin, in York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), was awarded a Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) in May 2020, as principal investigator for the project “Hemispheric Encounters: Developing Transborder Research-Creation Practices.” The term of the funding for the partnership team is seven years and the value is $2,499, 978.

Laura Levin
Laura Levin

“York University is delighted to learn of the success of Professor Levin’s SSHRC Partnership Grant. This prestigious grant, intended for large teams working in formal collaboration with postsecondary institutions, illustrates York’s leadership and that of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design. It underscores the University’s capacity as a driving force for positive change and its historic strength in analyzing cultures and mobilizing creativity,” said Vice-President Research & Innovation Amir Asif.

“Professor Laura Levin and her collaborators’ work reminds us of how essential performance is to the vitality and well-being of diverse communities across the Americas. This research will enhance critical connections among diverse cultures and communities. As an avid reader of Levin’s past work, I’m excited to see what this new project yields,” said AMPD Dean Sarah Bay-Cheng.

Levin is associate professor of Theatre & Performance Studies at York. She is director of Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts & Technology and incoming associate dean, Research in AMPD (starting July 1, 2020). She teaches courses on contemporary theatre and performance art, devised theatre and practice-based research. Her research focuses on site-specific, immersive and urban intervention performance; performing gender and sexuality; political performance; intermedial and digital performance; research-creation methods; and performance theory.

Hemispheric performance as a tool for social change

“Hemispheric Encounters: Developing Transborder Research-Creation Practices” is a partnership project that seeks to develop a network of universities, community organizations, artists, and activists across Canada, the United States, and Latin America actively working in and with “hemispheric performance” as a methodology, a pedagogical strategy, and a tool for social change.

“We activate this network for the purpose of sharing strategies and resources, forming transnational alliances, and developing more advanced understandings of human rights concerns affecting multiple sites in the Western hemisphere,” Levin explains.

This project is especially timely in forming transborder coalitions for exchanging hemispheric knowledge ― an action that Levin says could not be more urgent as growing rights emergencies require the coordinated action of activists in the Americas. Among others, these include:

  • The dramatic rise in nativism and populism and related spread of anti-immigrant sentiment;
  • The growing expulsion of refugee migrants from Central America;
  • The displacement of Indigenous communities by mining and pipeline projects; and
  • Record-high rates of sexual, racial and gender-based violence

Levin states that the partnership will generate original understandings of embodied practice as a unique method of conducting research on, and ethically tackling, these humanitarian and ecological challenges.

“It seeks to define, explore, and experiment with ‘hemispheric performance practice’ as a distinctive practice-based, decolonial, transborder, and collaborative mode of knowledge production,” she says.

This project, which builds on networks of the Canadian Consortium on Performance and Politics in the Americas and New York University (NYU)’s Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, assembles a group of international co-applicants and collaborators who are leaders in performance, human rights, environmental justice and research-creation.

Academic partners include Concordia University, OCAD, University of Alberta, University of Manitoba, L’Université du Québec à Montréal, University of Toronto, University of Windsor, University of Winnipeg, ITESO-Guadalajara, NYU, The José Simeón Cañas Central American University, La Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, La Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, La Universidad Nacional de Colombia, La Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina).

Community partners are artist and activist groups, with long histories of pursuing social justice through performance: Aluna Theatre, FADO Performance Art Centre, grunt gallery, LACAP, Productions Onishka, Western Front, Intervocal, Mapa Teatro, Mirador Colectivo, Radio Nativa, Resistencia Creativa, Sanctuary Neighborhoods, Teatro Azoro, Teatro Ciego, The Yes Men, Voces Mesoamericanas. These organizations bring current, vital experience in working on the real-life impacts of the hemispheric issues that the project is exploring.

Postdoc Fellowships also announced

SSHRC also posted its Postdoctoral Fellowship winners, in May 2020, which included many from York.

“We extend our congratulations to the SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship winners. The diversity of these projects, ranging from Canada’s new immigration landscape to gender justice, speaks to York’s strong commitment to shared values and our aspiration to better understand the human condition and the world around us, and to employ the knowledge we gain in the service of society,” said Vice-President Research & Innovation Amir Asif.

For more information on SSHRC Partnership grant information, visit the website. For the Postdoc Fellowships, go here. To learn more about Levin, visit her Faculty Profile page

Ancient stellar collisional ring galaxy forms stars 50 times faster than Milky Way

Ring galaxy James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions

Researchers have found a rare and massive collisional ring galaxy from some 10.8 billion years ago that is forming stars 50 times faster than the Milky Way, says York University Postdoctoral Fellow Leo Alcorn of the Faculty of Science.

These kinds of ring galaxies are formed when one galaxy collides with another galaxy that passes through its centre.

“The aftermath of the collision leaves behind a ring of diffuse light around the galaxy, a density wave of stellar material,” says Alcorn, a co-author on the paper, “A giant galaxy in the young Universe with a massive ring,” published in Nature Astronomy.

An artist’s impression of the ring galaxy. Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions
An artist’s impression of the ring galaxy. Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions

She adds that “this collisional ring galaxy is believed to be the most distant collisional ring confirmed to date.”

The discovery could shake up theories about the earliest formation of galactic structures and how they evolve.

Little is known about distant collisional rings, but with this finding the research team, led by researcher Tiantian Yuan of Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, can provide what it believes is the first detailed study of a ring galaxy from 10.8 billion years ago.

“It is a very curious object that we’ve never seen before,” says Yuan, who is based at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology. “Most of that activity is taking place on its ring – so it truly is a ring of fire.”

The researchers found the massive collision ring galaxy, named R5519, while searching for spiral galaxies.

“These systems are rare in the local Universe but finding one at a lookback time of 10.8 billion years ago, is unexpected,” says Alcorn. “We were not expecting to see a system like this so long ago given the rarity of these events in the local Universe.

She says the importance of this finding is it will allow researchers to study significantly more about merger-driven star formation and how disk galaxies evolve and interact with their environment, as well as with neighbouring galaxies.

This galaxy is similar in stellar mass to the Milky Way, but more than one and a half times larger in stellar half-light radius. It also has a clear ring structure and large diffuse disk, resembling a giant donut. It may be the most distant collisional ring confirmed to date. The closest thing to it in the local Universe is the well-known Cartwheel Galaxy, also a collisional ring galaxy.

The hole at its centre is three million times bigger than the diameter of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy Messier 87, which in 2019 became the first ever to be directly imaged.

The team worked with colleagues from Australia, the United States, Canada, Belgium and Denmark. Spectroscopic data was gathered by the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii and images recorded by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to identify the unusual structure of the galaxy.

To view an animated GIF of the ring galaxy (Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions), visit https://news.yorku.ca/files/Ring-galaxy-animated.gif.

Success of Ontario’s re-opening will depend on testing rate and contact tracing

Image: CDC
An image of the COVID-19 virus. Image: CDC

Enhanced testing and contact tracing for the coronavirus in Ontario could allow physical distancing measures to be relaxed, while keeping the reproduction ratio under one and preventing a second wave of infections, says corresponding author of a new modelling study Distinguished Research Professor Jianhong Wu of York University’s Faculty of Science.

The de-escalation would include three phases – a re-opening of workplaces, a resumption of public events and activities, followed by the opening of schools. The researchers modelled the requirement for testing, contact tracing and quarantine for each phase.

To be successful in the first two phases, the current time for diagnosis needs to be maintained and almost 60 per cent of exposed contacts would have to be traced, quarantined and isolated. Although, if some level of social distancing is maintained, that could counter any decrease in quarantining.

In the third phase, the researchers found that 70 per cent of exposed contacts would need to be isolated to avoid a rebound, a value they say is unrealistic. The use of masks and personal protective equipment during de-escalation, however, could be an important tool in helping to prevent a rebound.

“Our analysis can help inform public health and policy makers on best future actions and interventions to control the outbreak while relaxing physical distancing,” says Wu, director of the Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation Program.

The researchers looked at different possibilities and scenarios involving de-escalation of the current physical distancing and isolation rules for all of Canada, but particularly in Ontario. The province closed schools on March 14 and declared a state of emergency on March 17 with the closure of non-essential workplaces as of March 24.

The study estimated the effectiveness of interventions in terms of contact rate, probability of transmission per contact, detection rate, and proportion of isolated contacts. They concluded that a feasible de-escalation approach is to reverse the steps taken that led to most workplace and school closures.

In the future, the researchers say a transmission model involving age-specific contact mixing could be used to determine logistic implementations of a wider range of de-escalation strategies that would be dependent on a person’s age and the setting, whether a school, workplace, the home or community.

The research was published in the journal Biology.

Social distancing means a breath of fresh air, but for how long?

Mark Winfield
Mark Winfield

As working and spending more time at home are becoming the new normal for many families, our air is getting cleaner as a result.

With fewer people driving, especially to and from work, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of traffic-related pollution in the atmosphere is decreasing noticeably.

According to York University Professor Mark Winfield, co-chair of the University’s Sustainable Energy Initiative, clear and significant improvements in air quality can be observed locally, across the country and around the world as a result of people staying off the roads.

Winfield says that road transportation – specifically of those using internal combustion engines – accounts for around one third of Ontario’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With a significant number of those cars staying in their driveways, the environmental gains become meaningful.

Similarly, cars and trucks are the source of approximately one-third of precursors for smog. Levels of nitrous oxides, carbon monoxide and particulate matter are also declining as people drive less, and to fewer places.

Winfield notes that the extent to which transportation is a contributor to air quality issues varies across jurisdictions. Whereas pollution and emissions in other parts of the country can be attributed more directly to energy production and industrial activity, emissions from these sectors have been declining in Ontario over the past decade. This means that, in order to make a dent in Ontario’s overall contributions to climate change, critical changes will need to be made to the way we get around.

While we are observing a noticeable drop in emissions, similar to what the world experienced following the economic crisis of 2008, we shouldn’t expect to see a significant change in the trajectory of global temperature. Much of the hard work of tackling global emissions still lies ahead.

However, whether the current reductions in GHG emissions motivate future strategies to fight climate change will depend largely on the choices people make about their transportation habits in the long term, and which aspects of the current paradigm stick.

“Depending on how things play out with COVID-19, we may see permanent adjustments in terms of peoples’ willingness to work from home and not commute,” Winfield says, “and we may eliminate a significant portion of emissions from transportation that way.”

Right now, society is engaged in what Winfield describes as a mass experiment of the viability of new work patterns, an experiment that could head in several different directions.

There’s no certainly that current attitudes and habits toward driving will last as economies begin to re-open and people are drawn out of their homes, either by choice or necessity.

“It could play out in the opposite way as well,” he cautions. “Even today, we’re already hearing reluctance, in particular, to taking public transit.”

Road transportation accounts for around one third of Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions

Winfield expects that many commuters will opt for personal automobile use over less carbon-intensive forms of transportation until a COVID-19 vaccine is available. Such a shift toward automobile-based transportation habits could lead to significant increases in pollution and would undermine the recent environmental benefits of transit use and carpooling.

He also predicts that dense, transit-oriented urban planning may become less desirable given the role close human contact plays in disease transmission, making emission-driving urban sprawl more difficult to combat in the future.

Ultimately, this has demonstrated to Winfield that society does have an ability to change trajectories.

As economies re-open, a return to business as usual would mean these environmental gains wouldn’t make much of a difference in the long run. However, if some of the changes to the way we live, work and move are permanent, we may see a less carbon intensive society as a result.

Winfield sees the potential as more people and organizations do increasingly more things online and remotely, but also expects to see intense pressure to return to the status quo.

Either way, while individual behaviour will be a major variable, there are numerous policy decisions governments can make to support more people to work remotely even as public health restrictions are eased.

According to Winfield, access to the Internet, especially in low-income households and remote rural communities, as well as access to childcare and clean transportation, are crucial challenges, exacerbated by class, that governments will have to pay attention to. There are also many questions about how people will react to these dramatic lifestyle changes over time.

“We’re at an inflection point,” he explains, “but which way it goes, at this stage in the game, is at best unknown.”

Ozone-depleting chemical alternatives getting into our food and water

An international environmental agreement to regulate the use of chemicals depleting the ozone layer may have inadvertently allowed higher levels of other harmful chemicals to flourish, new research co-led by York University and Environment and Climate Change Canada has found.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was designed to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), such as freon used in older air conditioners.

But these replacement compounds, thought to be a better alternative, degrade into products that do not break down in the environment and have instead continually increased in the Arctic since about 1990.

Cora Young

“Our results suggest that global regulation and replacement of other environmentally harmful chemicals contributed to the increase of these compounds in the Arctic, illustrating that regulations can have important unanticipated consequences,” says Assistant Professor Cora Young of the Faculty of Science and the paper’s corresponding author.

It is important to study these products of CFC replacement compounds, short chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (scPFCAs) before more of them are phased in over the next few years as they can adversely impact human health and the environment. They are part of the perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) class of man-made chemicals used in commercial products and industrial processes that are currently receiving a lot of attention.

Ices cores the team drilled in the Arctic ready for shipping. Photo credit: Ali Criscitiello, University of Alberta
Ices cores the team drilled in the Arctic ready for shipping. Photo credit: Ali Criscitiello, University of Alberta

These scPFCAs are products of chemicals used in the fluoropolymer industry in automotive, electrical and electronic applications, industrial processing and construction.

“Our measurements provide the first long-term record of these chemicals, which have all increased dramatically over the past few decades,” says Young. “Our work also showed how these industrial sources contribute to the levels in the ice caps.”

They can travel long distances in the atmosphere and often end up in lakes, rivers and wetlands causing irreversible contamination and affecting the health of freshwater invertebrates, including insects, crustaceans and worms.

Current drinking water treatment technology is unable to remove them, and they have already been found accumulating in human blood as well as in the fruits, vegetables and other crops we eat.

Team members prepare ice cores in the Arctic. Photo credit: Ali Criscitiello, University of Alberta
Team members prepare ice cores in the Arctic. Photo credit: Ali Criscitiello, University of Alberta

The researchers measured all three known scPFCA compounds over several decades in two locations of the high Arctic and found all of them have steadily increased in the Arctic, particularly trifluoroacetic acid.

The researchers acknowledge the importance of the Montreal Protocol’s positive impact on the ozone and climate but point out that even the best regulations can have unintended negative impacts on the environment.

The research is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.