Should government fund journalism and, if so, what does that mean in terms of journalistic independence? Today in The Conversation Canada, Ivor Shapiro of Ryerson University provides an analysis of last week’s announcement by the federal government to provide tax breaks and other incentives to journalism operations – and proposes the time has come for journalists to have a professional self-regulating body.

Bruce Tobin of the University of Victoria, who is also a licensed therapist, writes about a personal experience he’s had with a patient who asked to be treated with psychedelic medicine to help her deal with the emotional stress of cancer. The treatment isn’t legal in Canada, but research in the U.S. shows it has helped patients suffering from “end-of-life distress.”

The U.S. Thanksgiving holiday meant another batch of tweets from Donald Trump. Henry Giroux of McMaster University returns with an essay on Trump’s latest rants about immigration and nationalism and how the language is similar to that used by fascists in the 20th century.

Walk into the business section of any book store and you’ll see many titles about disruption and how it breeds innovation. Eleftherios Soleas of Queen’s University takes another angle – that often some of the most innovative business ideas come from companies that are secure and stable.

And finally…today is Cyber Monday – which follows Black Friday. Norman Shaw of Ryerson University breaks down how retailers invented these new reasons to shop and explains how neither Black Friday nor Cyber Monday is actually the largest single day of retail sales in the world. Do you know what is? Read on to find out.

Regards,