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Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg musician, writer and academic, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work breaks open the boundaries between story and song—bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity. Leanne has performed in venues and festivals across Canada with her sister singer songwriter Ansley Simpson and guitarist Nick Ferrio. Leanne’s second album, f(l)light, was released in 2016 and is a haunting collection of story-songs that effortlessly interweave Simpson’s complex poetics and multi-layered stories of the land, spirit, and body with lush acoustic and electronic arrangements. Her EP Noopiming Sessions combines readings from her novel Noopiming with soundscapes composed and performed by Ansley Simpson and James Bunton with a gorgeous video by Sammy Chien and the Chimerik Collective. It was produced during the on-going social isolation of COVID-19 and was released on Gizhiiwe Music in the Fall of 2020. Leanne is the author of seven books, including This Accident of Being Lost, which won the MacEwan University Book of the Year; was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award; was long listed for CBC Canada Reads; and was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Quill & Quire. Her new novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies was released by the House of Anansi Press in the fall of 2020 and in the US by the University of Minnesota Press in 2021 and was named one of the Globe and Mail’s best books of the year and was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. A Short History of the Blockade was released by the University of Alberta Press in early 2021. Her new project with Robyn Maynard,Rehearsals for Living will be released in 2022 by Knopf Canada. Her newest record, Theory Of Ice was released by You’ve Changed Records in the winter of 2021, and features the artistic brilliance of Ansley Simpson, Nick Ferrio, Jim Bryson, John K. Samson, Jonas Bonnetta and Sandra Brewster.

Additional file 1: Table S1. List of candidate genes examined in the current study. Table S2. Results obtained from the sex-based expression analysis performed on the autosomal genes (segregated by tissues). Table S3. Results obtained from the sex-based expression analysis performed on the X-linked genes (segregated by tissues). Table S4. Results obtained from the sex-based DNA methylation analysis performed on the autosomal genes (segregated by tissues). Table S5. Results obtained from the sex-based DNA methylation analysis performed on the X-linked genes (segregated by tissues). Table S6. Results obtained from the exposure-based DNA methylation analysis performed on the autosomal genes (segregated by tissues).

Strength, resilience, adaptability, and compassion - these are the building blocks of the Regina COVID-19 Volunteer Community Response Team, a community support network initiated by Dr. JoLee Sasakamoose, Associate Professor in Educational Psychology and Counselling at the University of Regina. Since a state of emergency was announced by the Government of Saskatchewan in March 2020, the Regina COVID Response team of five core members and numerous volunteers has been working day and night to support Elders and other vulnerable Indigenous people in Regina, who do not have a network of family or caregivers. Staff no

The Covid-19 Pandemic has highlighted how important the healthcare sector is as critical infrastructure. It has also revealed how vulnerable the healthcare critical infrastructure is to malicious cyber operations. The number of cyber operations against the healthcare sector has increased substantially since the onset of the pandemic, seemingly unregulated by international law, particularly jus ad bellum. This paper argues that cyber operations that target or intend to target healthcare critical infrastructure should be treated as a use of force and armed attack because any intentional disruption to business continuity can and will cause physical harm and potential loss of life. Using the 2017 WannaCry Ransomware attack on the United Kingdom as a case study, this paper analyzes four approaches to classifying a cyber operation as a use of force and armed attack. The first approach is the Instrument Based Approach, which emphasizes a textual reading of the United Nations Charter. The second approach is the Strict Liability Approach, which treats all cyber operations against critical infrastructure as an armed attack. Third, the Effects Based Approach endorsed by the Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyberspace, which emphasizes the scale and effect of a cyber operation. Fourth, the Cyber Physical System Approach, which emphasizes the intent of the attack. Finding these approaches insufficient, this paper advocates for a Healthcare Based Approach which would consider any cyber operation rising above the level of espionage on healthcare critical infrastructure as an armed attack.

The devastating COVID-19 pandemic caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 continues to be prolonged by the ability of the virus to evolve into more transmissible and vaccine-resistant variants of concern (VOC). These fast-evolving VOC demonstrate the need for broad-acting antivirals against coronaviruses. As with several other human-infecting viruses, SARS-CoV-2 initiates attachment to host cells by binding to complex cell-surface carbohydrates known as glycans. These glycans are used by the virus to recognize and concentrate virions on the host cell surface and facilitate binding to less abundant entry receptors, like ACE2 for SARS-CoV-2. Due to most viruses using glycans to initiate infection, we therefore hypothesize that glycans are a worthy target for broad-acting antivirals. While monovalent carbohydrate-protein interactions are weak and have a low affinity, virions exploit multivalent interactions and the attachment of viruses to the cell is relatively strong. Therefore, one strategy in building a broad-based antiviral is to develop multivalent prophylactic antivirals that blocks this initial attachment of SARS-CoV-2 to glycans in the upper respiratory tract by targeting these carbohydrate-protein interactions. This thesis will describe an approach we are developing to synthesize multivalent carbohydrate-based antivirals for SARS-CoV-2 by targeting initial glycan-mediated interactions involved in viral attachment. Four preliminary targets for SARS-CoV-2 have been identified: mannose, galactose, N-acetylneuraminic acid, and gallic acid. These targets are functionalized with linkers bearing an azide functionality to facilitate conjugation to multivalent dendrimers scaffolds comprised of 3-24 alkyne moieties. The azide and alkyne functionalities allow for quick conjugation of the glycan mimetic derivatives through copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC), creating multivalent glycan-based dendrimers. The efficacy of these dendrimers as inhibitors will be tested using a SARS-CoV-2 viral entry assay using A549 epithelial cells with and without overexpression of the ACE2 receptor protein and lentivirus pseudo-typed with spike protein, with viral entry being measured by luciferase reporter activity.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic presents one of the greatest threats to pediatric pain care seen in generations. Due to public health restrictions, many pediatric pain clinics halted in-person appointments, delaying and disrupting access to care. There is no existing research on the impacts of COVID-19 on pediatric chronic pain care in Canada or the challenges experienced by health care professionals and pain clinics. Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on Canadian pediatric chronic pain care by documenting how health care professionals provided care during the first six months of the pandemic. Methods: Two Canadian online cross-sectional surveys were conducted: one among Canadian pediatric pain clinic directors (Study 1) and another among multidisciplinary pediatric pain health care professionals (Study 2). Results: Responses from 13/13 Canadian pediatric pain clinics/rehabilitation programs indicated that all clinics provided virtual care during the pandemic. No significant changes were reported on the frequency of appointment requests. Most clinics reported no perceived change in patient pain levels (n = 9/13, 69%) or occurrence of pain flares (n = 10/13, 77%). Results from 151 individual health care professionals indicated that the majority (90%) of non���emergency department respondents were providing virtual care. The main challenges of virtual care included technological barriers, financial concerns, infrastructure and logistics, privacy, and clinical challenges. Conclusions: This study documented the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric chronic pain care in Canada and highlighted the rapid shift to using virtual solutions. Simultaneously, respondents outlined current challenges and potential solutions to consider in the development of virtual care guidelines and policy in Canada.

In January of 2022, the self entitled #UnitedWeRoll convoy arrived in Ottawa and other locations around Canada to demonstrate against COVID-19 health measures and protest governments in Canada. While the group originated online, the in-person demonstrators commenced a month-long occupation that impacted international trade, community safety and brought the still raging conversation about COVID-19 even more to the forefront of Canadian society. With online communities being an influential venue for political discussion, it is important to understand the role of social media platforms and how social media content creators contribute to social and political movements on and offline. In this research, I analyze social media content produced by members of the far right on TikTok using the 2022 Canadian anti COVID-19 mandate demonstrations as a case study in order to gain insight into how far right movements in Canada grow and recruit new members to their networks.

This report documents my experience of teaching PUB 800 – Text and Context: Publishing in Contemporary Culture at SFU Publishing in the Fall 2020 semester, which was both my first time teaching this course and the first time it had been delivered remotely, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. It details the work of designing a publishing theory seminar as a non-academic, industry professional, and examines how a course that originated as a primer in Canadian publishing policy has evolved into a seminar course that more broadly interrogates the structure, state, and culture of contemporary publishing. The report reflects on the challenges of structuring the course to adequately cover the necessary material in twelve weeks, and on the limitations of using Canadian book publishing as the course’s primary case study. It also looks at the adaptations made to the course structure and delivery in light of the pandemic.

The University of Manitoba’s science librarians developed a three-credit, second-year course entitled “Information Skills for the Sciences” that was delivered for the first time in the fall of 2020. The culminating project of the course was a scientific poster session where students shared their research project as a poster presentation with their instructors and classmates. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the course was moved to online synchronous delivery and all assignments needed to be adapted for the online format. We designed a virtual poster session simulating an in-person event, hosting the poster session on Zoom for a class of twenty students using breakout rooms to separate presentations. Our poster details the methods used to deliver an online in-class poster session in an undergraduate setting with visualizations to illustrate the experience. Despite the conditions of remote learning, the poster presentation session allowed students to engage meaningfully with the research of their classmates demonstrating that an exciting end-of-semester event like an in-person poster session was possible in an online environment. We discuss the challenges we encountered creating the poster session as well as our reflections on what worked and what might be improved in the future.

In an urban context, the immigrant church is not only a place of worship, but it is also a community hub, a cultural center, and a social gathering place. When COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic in March 2020, there began a ripple effect of economic, social and mental health impacts. This study explores the use of social capital at three Korean immigrant churches in the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver to demonstrate community resilience. This research explores how and what kinds of supports were provided between the leadership and congregation, as well as between congregant-to-congregant. Although the physical locations were closed, the communications infrastructure and social relationships that existed prior to COVID were instrumental in sustaining a support network for Korean churchgoers during the pandemic. The immigrant church is a valuable urban asset that cities ought to support and partner with for future shock and stress events.