1. Poverty, Homelessness and Migration
A research team led by Dr. Carol Kauppi, was awarded $1 million by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to address poverty, homelessness and migration issues in northern Ontario.
This Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) project brings together a variety of partners: First Nations, First Nations service organisations, municipalities, health organisations and universities. The research team is composed of twelve professors from Laurentian University as well as professors from the University of Sudbury, Nipissing University, Université de Hearst and the University of Western Ontario. The associate directors, Dr. Emily Faries, Department of Native Studies, and Dr. Henri Pallard, director of the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Law (ICIRL), are key members of the research team assisting Dr. Kauppi in managing the project.
Partners are Aboriginal Community Advocates and N’Swakamok Native Friendship Centre from Sudbury, Timmins Native Friendship Centre, Moosonee Native Friendship Centre, Ininew Friendship Centre and Ga Beh Shoo In Aboriginal Men’s Shelter in Cochrane, Good Samaritan Inn in Timmins, James Bay General Hospital, Sudbury and District Health Unit, CMHA Sudbury, Centre de santé communautaire de Sudbury, the towns of Timmins and Smooth Rock Falls, and three First Nations in the western James Bay region – Kashechewan, Fort Albany and Moose Cree.
Mobilizing communities and developing practices and programs to address poverty, homelessness and migration issues in northern Ontario are key goals for this team of researchers. The five-year project will examine the underlying causes of poverty, poor housing, homelessness, and out-migration in northern Ontario to gain knowledge on these issues, understand their impact on northern Ontario, and give communities the tools they need to ensure that the most basic human needs of their citizens are met.
The project partners use traditional and innovative research methods in the communities, including design charrette, an intensive, hands-on workshop that bring people from different disciplines and backgrounds together to explore design options for housing within a particular area or site. The goal of the charrette process is to capture the vision, values, and ideas of the community while professional designers and architects sketch-out in real-time the visions expressed by the participants. Community members will also use cameras and recorders to capture their environment through the use of photo-voice and digital story-telling techniques.
2. Inaugural Forum
To mark its launch, the CRSJP hosted a forum on Mining Companies and Soil Pollution: The Rhetoric and Science of Health and Ecological Risk Assessments.The event was held on Wednesday, November 18, 2009. The inaugural forum was co-sponsored by the Community Committee on the Sudbury Soils Study. It featured presentations by Dr. Philippa Spoel and Glen Fox.
Philippa Spoel spoke about "Rhetorics of Public Communication and Community Engagement in the Sudbury Soils Study." This talk drew on recent theoretical work in environmental risk communication and citizen engagement in science communication as the framework for reviewing key aspects of public communication and community engagement in the Sudbury Soils Study. This was discussed both in terms of the main public communication / community engagement activities undertaken by the Study for its Human Health Risk Assessment and in terms of the rhetorical assumptions and language used by the Study to describe these initiatives.
Dr. Philippa Spoel of the Laurentian University English department works in the field of rhetorical studies. Her main teaching and research interests are in science, health, and environmental communication.
The talk by Glen A. Fox was titled "I am the Lorax, I speak for the Trees". His presentation focused on his evaluation of the Ecological Risk Assessment of the Sudbury Soils Study as well as the proposed Biodiveristy Action Plan for Greater Sudbury undertaken for the Community Committee on the Sudbury Soils Study.
Glen Fox has an MSc. from the U of Alberta in Ecology and environmental physiology; and an MSc. from the University of Surrey, UK. in Biochemical Toxicology. He has spent his professional career with the Canadian Wildlife Service of Environment Canada where he investigated the effects of environmental contaminants on the health and reproduction of fish-eating birds on the the Great Lakes. He retired in 2005.
3. Event in support of United Steelworkers Local 6500
Standing Together: Striking Back for a Stronger Future was held on Saturday, February 27, 2010. The event was an evening of music and stories in support of Local 6500 of the United Steelworkers. It included musical performances by Stéphane Paquette, Billy John, Ryan Levecque and the Women of Steel, as well as videos including "One Day Longer", a clip from "A Wives’ Tale," and scenes from the present strike. The speakers included Jamie West (Local 6500 USW), Kari Ann Cusack (Family Support Group for the Strike), Carolyn Egan (President of the United Steelworkers Toronto Area Council), Gary Kinsman (editor of Mine Mill Fights Back), Linda Obonsawin (Wives Supporting the Strike, 1978-79), Richard Paquin (president of Mine Mill/CAW Local 598), a former worker from Ravenswood, and Pete Wade (USW local 6500).
The event was organized by the Centre for Research in Social Justice and Policy, Labour Studies, the Graduate Students’ Association, the Laurentian Association of Mature and Part-Time Students (LAMPS), Association des étudiantes et étudiants francophones (AEF), and the Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) in collaboration with Local 6500 of the USW.
4. Book Launch, Ontario Works—Works for Whom?
An event was held on March 23, 2010 to launch the book Ontario Works—Works for Whom? An Investigation of Workfare in Ontario by Julie Vaillancourt.
This book is an institutional ethnographic investigation of the Ontario Works program and the problems that it creates in the lives of people on social assistance. Ontario Works is a work-for-welfare program that was implemented in Ontario in 1996 as part of the neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state. The book shows that Ontario Works has not, in reality, been used to help people on assistance and rather has been used as another means of facilitating an attack on them, while providing subsidized and cheap labour for companies and social agencies.
Julie Vaillancourt is a recent graduate of the Masters in Applied Social Research program at Laurentian University. She has been active in local anti-poverty groups and participated in a number of local anti-poverty forums.
The book launch was organized by the Sociology Department and the Centre for Research in Social Justice and Policy.