In Canada, you can put language alongside the other potentially hot-button dinner topics that might be challenging to discuss with strangers (or perhaps more poignantly, with people you know).
Language rights are no small issue in Canada – but perhaps for many of us, it’s not necessarily obvious how decisions about English-language schooling in Québec today are relevant to francophone minority communities across the country.
Today in The Conversation Canada, Richard Bourhis, professor emeritus at Université du Québec à Montréal, explains why francophone communities in Ontario and New Brunswick are finding common cause in supporting Québec anglophones. Nine English-language school boards, along with 60 French-language school boards, were recently abolished by Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) majority government. The changes came after the government invoked closure in an almost 70-hour debate about Bill 40 on Feb. 8.
The consequences of this sweeping bill, with 160 amendments, will be far-reaching, writes Bourhis.
Also today:
Regards,
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Québec Premier François Legault responds to the Opposition during question period, Feb. 7, 2020, at the legislature in Québec City.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
Richard Bourhis, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Ontario and New Brunswick francophones have spoken out against Québec abolishing English school boards, fearing this could set a negative precedent for French language education rights across Canada.
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Considered one of the healthiest ways to eat, the Mediterranean diet has evolved over hundreds of years, but ignoring other diets is a form of cultural superiority.
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Tina Moffat, McMaster University; Shanti Morell-Hart, McMaster University
Olive oil, grapes and fish. There's a lot to love about the Mediterranean diet but focusing on it might be a way to exclude other healthy and global diets.
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A Palestinian reacts to tear gas fired by Israeli forces during protests against U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mideast initiative in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed
Rachad Antonius, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
The Israel-Palestine "peace" plan concocted by Donald Trump's administration openly violates the principles of international law and, if implemented, would set a dangerous precedent.
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Ontario needs to reconsider its current electricity demand problems and focus on conservation efforts.
(Gandosh Ganbaatar/Unsplash)
Mark Winfield, York University, Canada
Energy-efficiency initiatives are consistently identified as the lowest impact and most cost-effective means of meeting energy needs. Why isn't Ontario focusing on them?
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Nous avons demandé à la moitié des participants de manger plus de légumes, de légumineuses, de fruits, de noix, d’huile d’olive et de poisson - et moins de viande rouge et de produits laitiers.
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Paul O'Toole, University College Cork
Nos recherches ont montré que le fait de suivre un régime méditerranéen était lié à moins de fragilité et d'inflammation et au maintien d'une meilleure fonction cognitive.
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Politics
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Charles Bierbauer, University of South Carolina
A longtime White House reporter describes what's lost when the relationship between the press and the president is bad and once-routine press briefings aren't held.
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Environment + Energy
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Christopher Sergeant, The University of Montana; Julian D. Olden, University of Washington
Dams built to hold enormous quantities of toxic mining waste have a long history of spills. Decisions in the Pacific Northwest threaten three free-flowing rivers there.
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Science + Technology
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Katarina Miljkovic, Curtin University
NASA's InSight lander has recorded the first evidence of earthquake-like tremors on Mars. The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the geological processes at play on another world.
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