Anyone who has a child with a peanut allergy knows the agony and terror that comes with worrying if their son or daughter will accidentally ingest peanuts – a potentially deadly encounter. But today in The Conversation Canada, pediatric allergist Edmond Chan of the University of British Columbia writes about success he and his colleagues have had with a treatment called oral immunotherapy – which gradually introduces very young children to small amounts of peanuts so they can successfully achieve “desensitization” and eventually build up protection against an accidental exposure.

That’s just one of several great reads we’ve got to kick off your week.

• Last month, gunmen in Pakistan opened fire on polio vaccination workers – part of a terror campaign by the Taliban who believe the campaign is a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. John Bergeron of McGill University provides a history of the polio vaccine and why it has managed to eradicate the disease while science has failed to do that with the flu.
• Justin Trudeau has taken a lot of heat over his handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair. But Charis Kamphuis of Thompson Rivers University looks inside another example of the Liberals giving in to corporate pressue – the watered down powers that reside with the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, which oversees Canadian companies operating abroad.
• Canadian Olympian and University of Toronto professor Bruce Kidd weighs in with an excellent analysis on the troubling ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport against runner Caster Semenya.

And finally…despite the impression that women have made great progress in Canadian politics, Canada currently ranks 62nd in the world in terms of female representation. Cheryl Collier of the University of Windsor and Tracey Raney of Ryerson University look at the many challenges still facing women in politics – including the many different forms of violence they face. This story is another part of our series called The Democracy Project, a joint initiative between The Conversation and CPAC designed to help Canadians access thought-provoking, original takes on democracy and the issues that will shape the next federal election.

Regards,