Search Results

Drones are becoming more accessible and efficient. This article presents a review of recent scientific literature focusing on their use to study wildlife. The 250 publications consulted were grouped into one of 4 categories: wildlife surveys, the behavioural response of wildlife to drones, the study of wildlife behaviour and wildlife protection. The review highlighted the great potential of drones for helping in the survey of animals, especially birds and mammals, and it also revealed the developments underway to allow their use for studying aquatic fauna, amphibians, reptiles and insects. The main impacts of drones on animals are presented and, based on the available information, preliminary recommendations are made to limit their disturbance to wildlife. Drones have multiple advantages and the rapid development of this technology suggests that several of the current limits to their use will soon be overcome. Finally, elements of the Canadian regulations on the use of drones are presented. In conclusion, in the medium-term, drones have the potential to play a significant role in the protection and management of biodiversity.

Keywords: comportement, conservation, détection, drone, inventaire, behaviour, conservation, detection, drone, survey

I'm a dancer who engages improvisation every time I put on my shoes to brush, step, click, and knock the floor. Not surprisingly, my work until March 2020 was primarily with fellow sound-makers, usually folk musicians from Ireland, Scotland, what's now called Canada, and what's now called Appalachia. COVID-19 has forced me to listen to the extemporaneous music I make anew, in the absence of collaborators, within a soundscape of profound uncertainty. In this contribution, I offer a voice from the floor, enunciated by my lowest limbs contacting the surface upon which I stand. This is where my work as an LGBTQ2IA+ improvising step dancer finds its meaning. In this essay, I respond to the incisive queer horizon Thomas F. DeFrantz casts, as "imagining outside of what came before." I share ways I have been thinking about improvisation and offer thoughts on how we might learn from DeFrantz to imagine and improvise “outside of” critically, queerly, and generatively.

Keywords: improvisation, percussive dance, traditional arts, queerness

The current reforms in public administration are intended to be the culmination of the move to implement digital government. Those reforms were already informing the implementation process some twenty years ago. However, since the first «e-government», the context has undergone significant changes. The use of clouds, biometric data, as well as the increasing use of algorithms in automated procedures all raise the issue of data protection, both public and private. While the focus is on the technical and administrative dimensions of these changes, their legal framework remains problematic. The choice of legal instruments reveals a preference for soft law as a regulatory tool in preference to legislation. While this preference is standard in the field of public policy, it warrants nonetheless the enhanced protection of citizens' rights and makes the case for the use of robust legislation in the place of administrative instruments. Despite the increasing use of legislation, the absence of a framework law leaves many issues unresolved from a legal perspective.

Globalization is a polarizing subject. It has always had its defenders and its detractors. Although we have been talking about globalization for several decades, it has never been more relevant than in recent months. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hassuddenly brought globalization to the forefront of ethical and political questions, the objective of this article is to present two works on responsible consumption and market exchanges by economist Dani Rodrick and by marketing researchers Myriam Ertz, Damien Hallegatte and Julien Bousquet. The article especially aims to bring to light their similar roots, namely the increasing awareness of global consumer issues and their repercussions. According to these two works, even if globalization has not delivered on all the expected benefits, the results of globalization could be more fair for all stakeholders of the different systems involved in these commercial exchanges.

The return of the Conservatives to power in Ontario, Canada in 2018 saw major attacks on the province’s K-12 education system, centering on increases to class size and mandatory e-learning courses for students which, taken together with other budget cuts, amounted to the elimination of thousands of teaching and support staff positions, as well as threats of privatization. These policies provoked widespread resistance from education workers, who as union members and grassroots activists conducted extensive outreach to build public support, engaged in job actions, and participated in the largest strikes in Ontario for decades as part of the campaign for “No Cuts to Education.” The start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 ended the movement. This article assesses the victories and defeats of this key struggle in defense of public education. It considers the strategies and tactics of provincial and local union leadership and activist members, in which the battle with the provincial government for the alignment of public support was widely recognized as being of decisive importance. The author uses autoethnographic research as a local union leader, interviews with active union members, policy documents, union statements and media coverage to construct an historical account. This experience has relevance for studies of teachers’ resistance to the neoliberalization of education, as well as social movement unionism and its challenges.

Keywords: teachers' unions, collective bargaining, strikes, public education

Based on a critical redefinition of the managerial description of organizational transformations, the current situation of health workers in hospitals and in CHSLDs (residential and long-term care centers in Quebec) is interpreted as a labor crisis whose seriousness has been revealed in the current pandemic. This labor crisis, that has been plaguing Quebec for over ten years in the health and social services, has its origins in the introduction of Lean management. Described as “just-in-time flow with reduced labour”, it is part of the industrial rationalization pursuit initiated by Taylorism. By over intensifying work, it generated a major labour crisis in the early 1990s, in Japan itself and in the Toyota assembly plants, where Lean management was developed. This crisis was completely passed over in silence by the gurus and the consultants who have endeavoured to implement it widely. Introduced in Quebec hospitals and in CHSLDs in the early 2010s, Lean management is also leading to a labour crisis here, which first emerged among nurses before spreading to beneficiary attendants. Work overload, compulsory overtime, psychological distress, burnout, resignations, absenteeism and recruitment difficulties are the aspects of a negative self-sustaining process. Based on research conducted with nurses in hospitals and supplemented by careful monitoring newspapers and electronic media, the article will finally address some solution avenues under the angle of wage disparities, recognition and participation in the reorganization of work.

Keywords: Crise lean, lean crisis, travail, labor, hôpitaux, hospitals, CHSLD, residential and long-term care centers in Quebec