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The Ecohealth Knowledge to Action Research Group is involved in a range of web-based interactions with a variety of stakeholders. This page will be used to profile these engagements.
EcoHealth in Action Webalogue Series
hosted by the Western node of CoPEH-Canada.
Launched in April of 2014, this series of dynamic webalogues aim to highlight the variety of ways in which a range of practitioners, professionals, policy-makers and community members are grappling with topical, current and complex issues emerging at the nexus of population health, ecosystem and society. The 90-minute sessions will be participatory and focused on learning and sharing, and issues will cut across disciplines, sectors, jurisdictions, species and geographical boundaries.
Check back regularly to find information on upcoming webalogues, to register, and to access webalogue recordings.
CoPEH-Canada is supported with funding from the Environment Community Health Observatory Network and the
Centre for Coastal Health,
and is part of EkoSanté, a collaboration arising from Communities of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health (CoPEH) in Latin America and the Caribbean (CoPEH-LAC) and in Canada (CoPEH-Canada).
Feeling nostalgic? check out some of the many recordings from previous webalogues below to tide you over.
Past Webalogues and Recordings
Parks, Prescriptions and Possibilities: A new pan-Canadian parks prescription initiative
May 18, 2021
Join us as we explore the principles and practices of nature prescribing, discuss the Canadian launch of PaRx from prescriber and parks implementation perspectives, and take a look at research possibilities and future directions.
You can learn more at the Parks Prescription Website.
Moderator: Chris Buse, Centre for Environmental Assessment Research, UBC
Speakers:
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- Melissa Lem, MD, CCFP, FCFP, President-Elect, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Clinical Assistant Professor, UBC Faculty of Medicine
- Jennie McCaffrey, BSc, MA, Principal Consultant & Owner at Engaging Change Consulting
- Sonya Jakubec, RN, BHScN, MN, PhD, Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health and Education, Mount Royal University
To access the recording of this webalogue click HERE
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The Legacy of Mercury Poisoning in Grassy Narrows: Tragedy and Resilience
April 21, 2021
During the 1960s and 1970s industrial pollution caused one of Canada’s worst environmental disasters. Mercury contamination of Grassy Narrows First Nation territorial waters led to impacts that are still felt strongly today. Join us as we hear a firsthand account of the consequences of this tragic situation and the community’s fight for environmental justice.
Moderator: Bob Woollard, Dept of Family Medicine, UBC
Presenters:
- Donna Mergler, Professor emerita, Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur le bien-être, la santé, la société et l’environnement (CINBIOSE), Université du Québec à Montréal
- Judy Da Silva, Anishinaabe mother and grandmother, Environment and Health Coordinator, Grassy Narrows First Nation.
Judy Da Silva is an Anishinaabe mother and grandmother from Grassy Narrows. Her children help her to have the positive energy to continue to look for justice for the solution of the mercury poisoning of their River system in Grassy Narrows and Mother Earth. She is a tireless advocate for her community members and for environmental protection. She has received several awards for her life’s work, including the Michael Sattler Peace Prize (Germany), Human Rights Watch Award (Toronto) and am honorary doctorate from Wilfred Laurier University, Canada. Judy lives in Grassy Narrows and suffers from the effects of mercury poisoning in a mild form. She works in the band office of her community as environmental health coordinator on issues such as mercury concentrations in fish in the surrounding lakes and rivers, river remediation, environmental health and a Mercury Care Home.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Reflections on the AMEE Consensus Statement on Planetary Health and Sustainable Healthcare
Mar 17, 2021
Join us this month as we delve into what has become an urgent agenda in training and educating health care professionals: Planetary health and sustainable healthcare. The focus will be the recently published AMEE Consensus Statement on Planetary Health and Education for Sustainable Healthcare. The panel will describe how this global collaboration of like-minded health professionals came about and offer some perspectives on how the Consensus Statement can guide others to integrate principles and key concepts, the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, traditional Indigenous natural laws and knowledge, into health professions curricula and provide examples.
Moderator: Margot Parkes, School of Health Sciences, UNBC
Panelists:
- Michelle McLean, Professor of Medical Education, Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia.
Born in South Africa and a biologist by degree, I have worked in medical education for more than 35 years in three countries, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and for the past 9.5 year, in Australia. I have always been connected to nature and spent my free time hiking in the bush or snorkelling in the local creek. Although most of my career in medical education has focused on curriculum development and particularly small group learning such as problem-based learning, in the last five or six years, I have been working on what is now an urgent agenda of training health care professionals to contribute by mitigating the footprint of health care. I have been integrating planetary health into my University’s Medical Program but also work with a group of like-minded individuals who are working at a national level. This has evolved to a global collaboration which has culminated in this AMEE Consensus Statement on Planetary Health and Education for Sustainable Healthcare.
- Nicole Redvers, ND, MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota. Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation, Yellowknife, NT
Dr. Nicole Redvers, ND, MPH, is a member of the Deninu K’ue First Nation from the NWT and has worked with various Indigenous patients and communities around the globe helping to bridge the gap between traditional and modern medical systems. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine and the Indians into Medicine Program at the University of North Dakota. Dr. Redvers is co-founder and chair of the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation based in the Canadian North with her foundation awarded the $1 million-dollar 2017 Arctic Inspiration Prize for their work with homeless people and those most at risk in northern Canada. Dr. Redvers has been actively involved at the international level promoting the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in planetary health and education for sustainable healthcare, and currently sits on the advisory board for the American Public Health Association’s Center for Climate, Health and Equity Steering Committee in addition to being senior fellow of Indigenous and Community Health with inVIVO Planetary Health. She also currently sits on the steering committee for the Planetary Health Alliance and is the author of the trade paperback book titled, ‘The Science of the Sacred: Bridging Global Indigenous Medicine Systems and Modern Scientific Principles’.
- Bob Woollard, Dept of Family Medicine, UBC
- Omnia El Omrani, Liaison Officer for Public Health Issues, International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA), Cairo, Egypt.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
Optimism, pessimism & exhaustion: A Conversation and Reflection on Pandemics
February 17, 2021
Join us for a conversation and reflection on pandemics. This session will be fueled by perspectives from David Waltner-Toews award-winning author and practitioner whose work navigates the interface of health, ecosystems and our shared future. David has written widely on Pandemics and continues to muse on the implications of our current global challenges. We are also pleased to welcome longstanding colleague Lisa Adams – as a discussant, sharing her own reflections and observations on similar themes from Australia. We anticipate a discussion that will range from pandemics, through poetry and the practices of ‘health’… and which will raise more questions than it answers.
Moderator: Margot Parkes, School of Health Sciences, UNBC
Speaker:
- David Waltner-Toews, University Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph, and Associate Researcher at the Community of Practice for Ecosystem Approaches to Health-Canada (CoPEH-Canada)
Discussant
- Lisa Adams, Lisa Adams and Associates. Lisa is a veterinarian, facilitator and group worker. Lisa’s special interest is participatory approaches for addressing complex social and ecological challenges, and amplifying the benefits of collaborative action – at local, regional, state, national and global scales. She was involved in pandemic planning and preparedness while Executive Director and Director of Research Development with the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Disease in the early 2000’s. In 2019 Lisa’s work was recognised with a United Nations Public Service Award for delivering more inclusive and equitable services, for establishing the Victorian Rabbit Action Network.
Background reading /fuel for discussion
* Learning from Pandemics: 3 Rs and 7Ds
* The wisdom of pandemics Viruses are active agents, existing within rich lifeworlds. A safe future depends on understanding this evolutionary story.
* On Pandemics: Deadly Diseases from Bubonic Plague to Coronavirus
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
Integrative Assessment tools, Health and the CIAA: Insights from Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment and GBA+
January 20, 2021
This presentation reviews the results of two knowledge synthesis projects. The first reviews the rationale, methods, and results of a realist review of scholarly literature on the topic of integrated regional and strategic environmental assessments. The project evaluated how integration is interpreted or conceptualized, and identifies challenges and opportunities for RSEA implementation in Canada in the context of environmental, socioeconomic and health goals. The second examines Gender Based Analysis Plus, intersectionality, and impact assessment literature and guidance in Canada. We discuss gaps and next steps for the implementation of a more robust federal impact assessment process.
Moderator:
- Maya Gislason, Faculty of Health Sciences, SFU
Speakers:
- Dawn Hoogeveen, Postdoctoral Researcher, Geography, UNBC
- Rob Friberg, RFP, PhD Candidate, Centre for Environmental Assessment Research, UBC
- Lauren Arnold, PhD Candidate, Centre for Environmental Assessment Research, UBC
- Aleyah Williams, Faculty of Health Sciences, SFU
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
Annual Holiday Round-table and Webalogue Futures Discussion
December 16, 2020
Join us as we shovel out 2020 and look back on the year that was. This is your chance to let us know what you’ve been up to. Simply send us a picture/slide and get ready to share your story. We’ll also be asking past speakers from 2019 and frequent webaloguers to tell us their story.
Moderator:
- Margot Parkes, School of Health Sciences, UNBC
- Maya Gislason, Simon Fraser University, Assistant Professor, Health Sciences
Frequent webaloguers:
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- Donald C Cole MD, FRCP(C), Occupational, Environmental, and Public Health Medicine consultant, Professor Emeritus, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
- David Waltner-Toews, University Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph, and Associate Researcher at the Community of Practice for Ecosystem Approaches to Health-Canada (CoPEH-Canada)
- Ben Brisbois, School of Health Sciences, UNBC
- Stephanie Witham, Masters of Public Health Candidate, SFU
- Sonja Jakubec, Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery Faculty of Health, Community and Education, Mount Royal University
- Alex & Sabina Lautensach, Adjunct Professor Education UNBC; Director, Human Security Institute (Canada), Editor-in-chief, Journal of Human Security
- Sarah Walpole, Medical doctor, Walikale project, Democratic Republic of Congo, MSF Holland, Honorary Lecturer, Hull York Medical School, UK, Sustainable Healthcare Education Network.
- AND a whole bunch of other very interesting and festive participants
Updates from 2019 Webalogues:
- Kerri Klein, MA, Director, SHIFT Collaborative
- Mar 2019 webalogue: “Making the links between climate change, community health and resilience: Building the field in British Columbia”
Animals, Health and Society – reframing the historic narrative of people, animals and nature as risks to each other, to one where we think about health as a shared capacity.
November 18, 2020
This session will explore the situations wherein we can all, regardless of our job description, work across species, sectors and generations to motivate action by discussing the upcoming book Animals, Health and Society: Health Promotion, Harm Reduction and Health Equity in a One Health World. A panel of the books publisher, editor and some authors will provide their perspectives on why this book is timely and needed in a time of pandemics, climate change and mass extinction. The discussion will focus on finding perspectives and methods from a variety of fields and experts that can be shared and adapted to promote collaborative understanding of and action on determinants of health at the animal-society interface.
Moderator:
- Stefan Iwasawa, Centre for Coastal Health
Speakers:
- Craig Stephen, President, Pacific Epidemiology Services
- Alice Oven, CRC Press
- Colin Robertson, Dept of Geography and Environmental studies, Wilfred Laurier University
- Margot Parkes, School of Health Sciences, UNBC
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
EcoHealth Practice: Waterways to the future
November 5, 2020
How can large intersectoral teams support learning and career development? What tools and resources are available to support team members at each stage of their career and learning journey? Join us for an engaging panel discussion to discuss these questions and explore ways large intersectoral teams can implement supports while seeking to create healthy and just futures.
Moderators:
- Margot Parkes, School of Health Sciences, UNBC
- Katie Bauder, First Nations Health Authority
Speakers:
- Robert Woollard, Dept of Family Medicine, UBC
- Louisa Hadley, UNBC Alumni
- Diana Kutzner, Research Manager – ECHO Network/Réseau ECHO, UNBC
- Maya Gislason, Simon Fraser University, Assistant Professor, Health Sciences
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
Taking effective action on climate change by blocking construction of large fossil energy projects
AND
Health professional civil disobedience in response to the climate health emergency: an ethical framework
September 23, 2020
In this first webalogue of the season Dr. Tim Takaro will discuss community-level direct action to protect the planet by blocking construction of Trudeau’s TransMountain piplie expansion project. While Dr. Alexandra Macmillian will discuss how climate change is well-recognized as a health emergency and an ethical crisis and concerted commercial interference blocking government action is resulting in citizens including health professionals, turning to civil disobedience as a last resort. We have reviewed the ethical and philosophical literatures on medical civil disobedience and propose an ethical framework for individual health professional decision-making. Dr. Macmillian will use climate change policy in Aotearoa NZ as a case study.
Moderator: Chris Buse, Centre for Environmental Assessment Research, UBC
Speakers:
- Dr. Tim Takaro, Professor of Health Sciences, SFU
- Dr. Alexandra Macmillan, Associate Professor Environmental Health, Dept of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, NZ
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
THE ART AND SCIENCE OF SYMPOESIS: a research-creation project on symbiotic human-microbial experiences from the Free Skool for Holobionts (FRESH)
May 20, 2020
Even in pandemic times, is it possible to balance the us-vs-them of anti-viral defense with a more holistic connection to the microbial – a space where microbes are allies more often than enemies or catalysts to xenophobia?
The FREE Skool for Holobionts (FRESH) was formed in late 2019 to challenge the centrality of humans as agentic forces within the artscape and within cultural perception more broadly. The holobiont is the human body plus its symbiotic microorganisms (i.e., the beneficial microbes that support human flourishing). Blending performance and media arts, our collective engages with current scientific understanding to explore how the holobiont plays, learns, and expresses itself. What movements and meanings emerge from a multi-species being that is enmeshed in complex, dynamic environments, where social and microbial webs of relationship move us into creative action?
As a collective, we set out to generate theatrical, multi-media situations that gesture towards multi-species resistance movements and a more balanced ecological future. We lead workshops as a collective creation with the audience. Participants bring their bodies and knowledge, microbial and human, to be part of the performance. The Free Skool invokes long-standing traditions of people’s science, activist performance and media art, especially within grassroots educational actions of feminist movements.
The collective is made of three members: JB Spiegel and Sky Styker are theatrical performers who have worked together as activists and artists since Montreal’s 2012 student movement. They both hold PhD’s, in Cultural Studies and Environmental Science respectively. Flick Harrison is a community-engaged media artist working with dancers, performers and musicians; he blends low-tech, obsolete and primitive media with re-purposed new media. Our collective is flatly organized; we try to listen with to our guts, giving credit to the many non-human agents that participate in our creative, artistic decision- making processes.
Moderator: Bob Woollard, Dept of Family Medicine, UBC
Speakers:
- Jordan Sky Oestreicher, PhD, post-doctoral fellow at the Universidade de Brasilia at the Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentável
- Jennifer Spiegel, PhD, Assistant professor Dept of English Concordia University
- Flick Harrison, Community-engaged media artist
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
Learning for Planetary Health: Early Lessons from a Pandemic
April 15, 2020
We are experiencing the greatest challenge for public health in several generations with the COVID-19 pandemic, and with this challenge will emerge unprecedented opportunity as governments and citizens prepare for a post-COVID future. This webinar will begin by exploring the origins of the outbreak with lessons from the animal-human interface. We will then learn from previous economic collapses and what these lessons teach us about the coming weeks and months as we emerge from the current wave of disease and devastated economy to become a more healthy planet. We will begin exploring the relationships and resources needed for a recovery that makes us stronger and better able to face the challenges to planetary health that are even more critical than the COVID-19 pandemic, but that appear less imminent to society. One goal is to articulate a shared vision of this future where society bounces back, but bounces back to a better place than our pre-pandemic world.
Moderator: Chris Buse, Centre for Environmental Assessment Research, UBC
Speakers:
- Mira Ziolo, Consulting Veterinarian at Wildlife Rescue Association of BC, PhD Student, UBC Interdisciplinary PhD student
- Tim Takaro, Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
- Trevor Hancock, Retired Professor and Senior Scholar, School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victoria
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
To connect with later sessions in the “Learning for Planetary Health Series” please find information here
Ecohealth international and the creation of an Americas Chapter: Ongoing efforts to reconnect ecosystems, equity and health
March 31, 2020
Join us for a conversation about the evolution of the ecohealth international and the creation of an Americas Chapter. A panel of speakers will discuss past and current ecohealth efforts across the Americas, and the opportunities that are emerging with this new phase of efforts across the ecohealth community, including links to the ecohealth2020 theme of “working together for a healthy, just and sustainable planetary home”.
Moderator: Margot Parkes, School of Health Sciences, UNBC
Speakers:
- Johanne Saint-Charles, Université du Québec à Montréal, Department of Social and Public Communication, Director – Health and Society Institute, Co-Director – Group-Networks, Executive Committee – Institute of Environmental Sciences, Director – WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center for Occupational Health and and the Environment (Cinbiose)
- Maya Gislason, Simon Fraser University, Assistant Professor, Health Sciences
- Jane Parmley, Associate Professor in One Health in the Department of Population Medicine
- Ernesto Raez Luna, Peru: Reflecting on the Cali Statement of EcoHealth2018: 7th Biennial Ecohealth Conference and 3rd Latin American Meeting of Public Health: “Environmental and Health Equity: Connecting Local Alternatives in a Globalized World. “See Statement of Conference 2018″ HERE
- Gerardo Suzan, Professor, School of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
Health in the Anthropocene: Living well on a Finite Planet
February 27, 2020
Join us this month as our author/editor panel delves into a brand new published work: “Health in the Anthropocene: Living well on a finite planet”. Adding to a growing body of knowledge about how the social-ecological dynamics of the Anthropocene affect human health, this collection presents strategies that both address core challenges, including climate change, stagnating economic growth, and rising socio-political instability, and offers novel frameworks for living well on a finite planet.
Rather than directing readers to more sustainable ways to structure health systems, Health in the Anthropocene navigates the transition toward social-ecological systems that can support long-term human and environmental health, which requires broad shifts in thought and action, not only in formal health-related fields, but in our economic models, agriculture and food systems, ontologies, and ethics.
Arguing that population health will largely be decided at the intersection of experimental social innovations and appropriate technologies, this volume calls readers to turn their attention toward social movements, practices, and ways of living that build resilience for an era of systemic change. Drawing on diverse disciplines and methodologies from fields including anthropology, ecological economics, sociology, and public health, Health in the Anthropocene maps out alternative pathways that have the potential to sustain human wellbeing and ecological integrity over the long term.
Speakers:
- Katharine Zywert, PhD student, School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability, University of Waterloo.
- Sonya Jakubec. Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery Faculty of Health, Community and Education, Mount Royal University
- Margot Parkes, Canada Research Chair in Health, Ecosystems and Society, UNBC
- Blake Poland, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Co-Chair (with Margot Parkes) of Ecological Determinants Group on Education (EDGE)
- Mary Jane Yates, Health Promotion Facilitator, Certified Nature & Forest Therapy Guide
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
One Planet Region
January 22, 2020
Ever since we first saw Earth rise from the moon in 1968, we have known for sure that we live on a small, finite planet – but we act as if we had several planets. The speakers in this session have been working in various ways to help communities to adopt a ‘One Planet’ approach that encompasses both ecological and social transformation.
Speakers:
- Pooran Desai is the co-founder of UK-based Bioregional, co-developer of BedZED in south London and one of the leaders in creating the concept of One Planet Living. A ‘serial social entrepreneur’, Pooran is working with many communities around the world to help ,them implement One Planet approaches. He will discuss the One Planet approach and its application.
- Cora Hallsworth has nearly 20 years experience advancing community and organizational sustainability. A Senior Associate with One Earth, she manages Ecocity Centre initiatives at the BC Institute of Technology. Currently, Cora leads One Planet Saanich and is working with 10 communities to evaluate their ecological footprints and consumption-based emission inventories. She will discuss the work of One Planet Saanich.
- Trevor Hancock is one of the founders of the global Healthy cities and communities movement and a leader in the work of connecting population health promotion and ecological sustainability. For the past 3 years he has been running Conversations for a One Planet Region in BC’s Capital Region. He will discuss approaches to foster a social, economic and cultural shift at the local level.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
Useful links
Bioregional – https://www.bioregional.com/
One Planet Cities project – https://www.bioregional.com/projects-and-services/influencing-wider-change/one-planet-cities
One Planet Saanich – www.oneplanetsaanich.org
BCIT Ecocity Centre of Excellence – https://commons.bcit.ca/ecocitycentre/
Conversations for a One Planet Region – https://creativelyunited.org/one-planet-region/
Creatively United for the Planet: Solutions guide with 58 Tips for Lighter and Healthier Living, https://creativelyunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Solutions-Guide-Web.pdf
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Useful resources
- Hancock, Trevor; Desai, Pooran and Patrick, Rebecca (2019) Tools for creating a future of healthy One Planet cities in the Anthropocene Cities & Health DOI: 1080/23748834.2019.1668336
- Last year, the District of Saanich became one of four international cities chosen to participate in the One Planet Cities Project. Led by a team of sustainability practitioners from the BC-based NGO One Earth and UK-based Bioregional. One Planet Saanich (OPS) is engaging schools, businesses and community groups to create their own One Planet Action Plans (see oneplanetsaanich.org).
- BCIT Ecocity Centre of Excellence: Saanich, Victoria and Capital Region District are working with BCIT on the piloting of the ecoCity Footprint Tool and the Lighter Footprint app – which are helping municipalities and individuals assess and reduce their ecological footprint. see https://commons.bcit.ca/ecocitycentre/ )
- Hancock, Trevor (2019) Beyond science and technology: Creating Planetary Health needs ‘heart, gut and spirit’ work Challenges 10, 31; doi:10.3390/challe10010031
Other useful references are
- Hancock, Trevor (2018) Healthy Cities 2.0: Transitioning towards ‘One Planet’ cities (Key challenges facing 21st century cities, Part 3) Cities & Health 1 (3): DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2018.1526659
- Hancock, Trevor; Capon, Anthony; Dooris, Mark and Patrick, Rebecca (2017) One planet regions: planetary health at the local level Lancet Planetary Health 1: e92 – 3 Open Access at http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanplh/PIIS2542-5196(17)30044-X.pdf
Youth and Watersheds: Connecting Land, Water and Health for our Shared Future
October 16, 2019
‘Te toto o te tangata, he kai; te oranga o te tangata, he whenua’
(While food provides the blood in our veins, our health is drawn from the land).
This session will profile the work of Billie Pomare, Jordan Cranmer, and Ella Parker who have been each exploring youth engagement watershed work from opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean. Through three rounds of questioning the panel will have the opportunity to showcase the communities and projects that they have been a part of, as well as delve into specific mechanisms enabling youth engagement & action projects to succeed, from their experiences. Join us for a dynamic question and answer panel session!
Speakers:
- Billie-Jo Pomare is a visiting Māori scholar from New Zealand on exchange through the cross cultural knowledge exchange with Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and UNBC. Billie Jo Pomare is currently undertaking research in Prince George for her doctoral thesis specific to indigenous youth reengagement in education.
- Ella Parker is a graduate student in the Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Program at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). Over the past year, Ella worked with UNBC’s Integrated Watershed Research Group to help advance an integrative science and aboriginal education program called Koh-Learning in our Watersheds, taking place in the Nechako watershed in partnership with School District 91.
- Jordan Cranmer is an undergraduate student in the Biochemistry Program at the University of Northern British Columbia. Throughout the past year, Jordan has worked with the Environmental Community Health Observatory Network and School District 91 to help promote youth engagement in stream stewardship projects in the Nechako Watershed.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
Planetary Health Justice
September 18, 2019
Numerous approaches to understanding and responding to increasingly complex environmental health issues have proliferated over the past 150 years. Most recently, Planetary Health has emerged as a pre-eminent area of research and practice in the broader field of environmental health, defined as “the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems that define the safe environmental limits within which humanity can flourish” (Whitmee et al. Rockefeller Foundation/Lancet Commission Report on Planetary Health, 2015). Planetary Health supposedly grew out of what is referred to as the ‘Planetary Health paradox’–the fact that humans are healthier than any previous point in history, but that our health and lifestyles are predicated on crisis-level overuse of resources and the related deterioration of ecosystem services that support all life on our planet. However, to date, there have been limited ethical interrogations of emerging environmental health perspectives (e.g. Ecohealth, One Health, Planetary Health), and a more comprehensive engagement with the ethics of an emerging field of inquiry will undoubtedly add value to the significance and impact of associated interventions and responses. In the case of Planetary Health, this would necessarily include explicating the scalar nature of ethical issues from the local to the global and across the past, present, and future. In this webalogue, our presenters will explore ethical issues that manifest across different scales, and outline a research program to build a theory for planetary health justice.
Suggested Reading (for more information): Buse CG, Smith M, Silva DS. Attending to scalar ethical issues in emerging approaches to environmental health research and practice. Monash Bioethics Review. 2018 Jun 4:1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-018-0080-3
Speakers:
- Maxwell J. Smith, Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University
- Diego S. Silva, Sydney Health Ethics, University of Sydney, Australia
Speaker bios:
Maxwell J. Smith, PhD, is a bioethicist and Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University. He is also the Co-Director of Western’s Health Ethics, Law, and Policy (HELP) Lab, and holds appointments in Western’s Department of Philosophy, the Rotman Institute of Philosophy, the Centre for Research on Health Equity and Social Inclusion, and the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration. He is also a Consulting Clinical Bioethicist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and a Contracting Consulting Ethicist with the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health (CADTH). Dr. Smith’s research is in the area of public health ethics and focuses specifically on the ethical dimensions involved in the pursuit of health equity and social justice. Dr. Smith completed a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University (2018), a PhD in public health sciences and bioethics at the University of Toronto (2016), an MSc in bioethics at Union Graduate College and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2010), a Certificate in Health Law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University (2010), and an Honours BA in philosophy at the University of Toronto (2008).
Diego S. Silva, PhD, is a Lecturer at Sydney Health Ethics at the University of Sydney, Australia. Between 2015-2019, Dr. Silva was an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. His research focuses on the intersection of ethics, political theory, and public health. In addition to researching and publishing on topics including Planetary Health ethics, the ethics of community mental health, and ethical issues related to microbiome research. Dr. Silva’s main focus has been on issues related to the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, both in Canada and globally. Dr. Silva graduated in 2013 with a PhD in public health from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, while also holding an MA and BA (Honours) in philosophy from the University of Toronto.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
Introduction to Drawdown; The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
May 22, 2019
Join us as we share the message that we can reverse global warming by moving into action with Drawdown which is the point in time when the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere peak and begins to decline on a year to year basis. Published in 2017 this comprehensive text sends a message that we know what to do so let’s do it! “It’s Not Game Over, It’s Game On!” This inspiring and very hopeful message is scientifically researched and focused on existing solutions with sufficient data available for global modelling and its 100 solutions to reverse global warming is being implemented worldwide.
Speakers:
- Erlene Woollard, Suzuki Elders
- Joan Sutherland, Suzuki Elders
- Bob Woollard, UBC, Dept of Family Practice
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
Equity Frontiers in Environmental Health Research: Perspectives from the field
April 10, 2019
Equity refers to what is ‘right’, moral or just, and is a central consideration in environmental health research. However, many questions emerge when attempting to understand how health impacts are distributed within and between population groups, what the root causes of those impacts are, and how an equity lens may offer unique insights into research of and with impacted populations. This webalogue will explore the perspectives of three researchers who recently attended a meeting titled “Environment and human health, data and equity,” and will reflect on opportunities and challenges for furthering equity-focused research on environmental health in Canada.
Speakers:
- Katie Bauder, Master of Public health (MPH) candidate and research coordinator at Simon Fraser University
- Maya Gislason, Assistant professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
- Diana Kutzner, PhD, Research Manager – ECHO Network/Réseau ECHO, UNBC
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Making the Links between Climate Change, Community Health and Resilience: Building the Field in British Columbia
March 20, 2019
Climate change has simultaneously been called the greatest threat and the greatest opportunity for public health this century. On the one hand, climate change will cause significant health impacts, exacerbating existing inequities. On the other hand, responding to climate change presents an opportunity to transform the very systems that shape how we live—energy, transportation, housing, and the economy—and create a future that is healthier and more sustainable for all.
Making the Links: Climate Change, Community Health and Resilience” (Nov 5-6, 2018) was the first gathering of its kind in BC seeking to advance collaborative, cross-sectoral action on climate change and health in the province. A sold-out event, 180 participants representing diverse sectors gathered for two days in Kelowna, BC to listen to inspiring speakers and community stories and share knowledge, engage in cross-sector dialogue, and identify challenges and opportunities for collaborative action. Together, we explored the opportunities and barriers to develop shared approaches to climate change that not only protect, but also improve community health, well-being, and resilience.
This webalogue will share highlights from this event, including a “Collaborative Framework for Action on Climate Change and Health”.
Speakers:
- Kerri Klein, MA, Director, SHIFT Collaborative
- Erica Crawford, MA, RTC, Director and Co-founder, SHIFT Collaborative
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Evolution of capacity strengthening in ecosystem approaches to health: the long look
February 14, 2019
This webalogue will cast a long look back on an evolution of capacity strengthening across higher education institutions in the complex field of ecosystem approaches to health. Incubated through the co-design of a Canada-wide intensive face-to-face course, the Community of Practice generated a teaching manual with flexible formats to extend our reach to other academic faculty and practitioners. We describe how the development of collaborations (process) has been dynamically linked with learning about ecosystem approaches to health (content domain) in ways congruent with the field’s complexity. We argue that cross-university, grounded Communities of Practice are particularly appropriate for transdisciplinary educational initiatives tackling the daunting socio-ecological problems, and the associated health and sustainability challenges, currently facing humanity.
Cole DC, Parkes M, Saint-Charles J, Webb J, Gislason M, McKellar K, and the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health Team. Evolution of capacity strengthening: insights from the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health. Transformative Dialogues: teaching and learning eJournal 2018 (August); 11(2): 1-21. Special Issue on Transitions, Change and the Power of Collaboration. http://www.kpu.ca/sites/default/files/Transformative%20Dialogues/TD.11.2_Cole_etal_Evolution_of_capacity_strengthening.pdf
Also relevant, particularly for trainees’ views, is an earlier paper
Parkes M, Saint-Charles, Cole DC, Gislason M, Hicks E, Le Bourdais C, McKellar K, St-Cyr Bouchard M & Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health Team. Collaborative teaching and learning: Experiences from a short, intensive field course on ecosystems, health and society. Higher Education Research and Development 2017; 36(5):1031-1046 Published online 2016 Dec 9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1263937
Speakers:
- Donald C Cole (University of Toronto)
- Johanne Saint-Charles (Université du Québec à Montréal)
- Margot W Parkes (University of Northern British Columbia)
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Heals like a Tree, Flows like a River: engagements with health dynamics in trees, rivers and the more-than human
January 16, 2019
Speakers:
- Richard Reich, RPF, MSc, NSERC Industrial Research Chair – Forest Health, Natural Resources and Forest Technology Program, College of New Caledonia
- Ella Parker, UNBC
- Riley Brennan, UNBC
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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One good story, that one: Arts-based approaches to reconnecting land, body and spirit
November 20, 2018
This session will profile the work of May Farrales, Nicole Schafenacker, and Laruen Aldred, who are exploring creative, humanistic (as opposed to didactic or close-ended) engagements and methods to prompt and open new spaces of understanding in research. May’s work with the Health Arts Research Centre and Environment, Community and Health Observatory (ECHO) Network focuses on the use of arts-based and narrative inquiry approaches to explore responses to the impact of natural resource development while Nicole’s focus is on exploring mental health realities and intimacy through embodied, visual and textual autoethnographic interventions in institutional settings to affect dialogue on health, well being and social justice. Lauren will discuss using poetry and art for illustration, she will tell stories of how connecting with nature has helped people live and die more fully, and how to help people connect to and articulate their experiences therapeutically. All three presenters are also eager to hear your own experiences using art to explore the interconnections of spirit, body and land. So join us for this lively discussion and bring a story or two of your own to share!
Speakers:
- May Farrales, Postdoctoral Fellow with the Health Arts Research Centre and ECHO project at the University of Northern British Columbia
- Nicole Schafenacker, University of Northern British Columbia M.A. Student, Interdisciplinary Studies, Research Assistant with the Health Arts Research Centre.
- Lauren Aldred, MA-PPL (Vancouver School of Theology); Manager, Spiritual Health, Northern Health Authority; Counsellor, College of New Caledonia; BC Chair, Canadian Association for Spiritual Care; Counselling and Spiritual Services, Self-Employed.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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“The ECHO Network: Update on Regional Case Activity”
October 17, 2018
This webalogue will provide an overview of the ECHO Network’s four regional cases spread across Canada. The ECHO Network is a 5-year research program, funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Team Grant, focused on working together across sectors to take notice of- and respond to- the influence of resource development on health and well-being, with specific emphasis on rural, remote and Indigenous communities and environments. The project brings together university researchers and local knowledge-users who have identified a need to better understand and respond to the health, environment and community impacts of resource development. Representatives from each case will provide a glimpse into how they are responding to the influence of resource development on health and well-being in their respective contexts.
Speakers:
- Céline Surette, Ph.D. Professeure agrégée, Département de chimie et de biochimie
Faculté des Sciences, Université de Moncton- ECHO Network Principal Applicant - Anne Faure, Ph.D. Stagiaire postdoctorante, Université de Moncton- ECHO Network Postdoctoral Fellow
- Sarah Skinner, Watershed Planning Coordinator, Battle River Watershed Alliance- ECHO Network Knowledge User/Regional Case Coordinator
- Jordan Brubacher– ECHO Network Research Assistant (First Nations Health Authority case)
- Shayna Dolan– ECHO Network Research Assistant (Northern BC-CIRC regional case)
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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“Environmental Health Movements and Advocacy”
September 19, 2018
What kinds of actions are being taken to promote environmental stewardship, sustainability and health across Canada? How do scholarship and advocacy efforts inform environmental social movements (and vice versa)? And how can we ensure advocacy efforts are reaching people and helping to make a difference? Three presenters share their experiences working within and beyond the academy on an exciting array of community organizing efforts at the interface of ecology and health.
Speakers:
- Erica Phipps (Queens) on the RentSafe initiative
- Randy Haluza-Delay (King’s College)
- Erlene Woollard (Suzuki Elders)
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Emerging and established approaches to environmental public health
May 15, 2018
This webalogue provided an overview of two recent publications clarifying the intent and focus of emerging and established approaches to environmental health research and practice. An overview of several milestones in environmental public health practices were provided to foster a discussion about the future of these fields and the implications of an increasingly ‘crowded’ environmental public health landscape. For participant’s reference, the papers in question are available at the following links, although you are not required to read these materials prior to the webalogue:
1) Buse CG, Oestreicher JS, Ellis NR, et al Public health guide to field developments linking ecosystems, environments and health in the Anthropocene J Epidemiol Community Health 2018;72:420-425. Available: http://jech.bmj.com/content/72/5/420
2) Oestreicher JS, Buse C, Brisbois B, Patrick R, Jenkins A, Kingsley J, Tevora R, Fatorelli L. (2018). Where ecosystems, people and health meet: Academic traditions and emerging fields for research and practice. Sustenabilidade em Debate, 9(1), 45-65. DOI: 10.18472/SustDeb.v9n1.2018.28258. Available: http://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/sust/article/view/28258/20762
Speakers:
- Chris Buse (UNBC)
- Rebecca Patrick (Deakin University)
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Successes and Challenges of EkoSanté: an intergenerational and international conversation
April 18, 2018
This webalogue ventured into the world of EkoSanté, a collaboration between communities of practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada. We examined some of the successes and challenges met while delving into the rapid and constant change in our ever growing intergenerational and international conversation on issues at the confluent of health, environment, and society
Speakers:
- Dr. Johanne Saint-Charles, Département de communication sociale et publique Directrice adjointe – axe santé environnementale – (CINBIOSE) Université du Québec à Montréal (Professor in the Department of Social and Public Communication, Assistant Director -Environmental Health Axis – (CINBIOSIS), University of Quebec in Montreal)
- Douglas Barraza, Researcher and Lecturer, Health Section, Instituto Regional de Estudios en Sustancias Tóxicas (IRET), Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica Engineering on Occupational Health and Environment , Univisersidad Técnica Nacional, Costa Rica
- Jena Webb, Director of Projects, CoPEH-Canada
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Global in more ways than one:
Climate Change and Health Professional Education
March 21, 2018
This webalogue had us putting on our strategic thinking hats as we looked at the question of how we can further ecosystem education across the board. We then delved into the realm of climate change and health professional education. Sustainability for tomorrow’s graduates and the sustainable education network was explored. The integration of climate change in the medical education system was discussed by looking at a case study and lessons learned from global health education taking place in India.
Speakers:
- Dr. Sarah Walpole, Medical doctor, Walikale project, Democratic Republic of Congo, MSF Holland, Honorary Lecturer, Hull York Medical School, UK, Sustainable Healthcare Education Network. Dr. Walpole is a UK trained medical registrar, recently returned from working for Medecins Sans Frontieres in the DRC and a long term active member of the Sustainable Healthcare Education network
- Dr. Stefi Barna, Professor of Public Health and Sustainability at Azim Premji University in Bangalore, India, and co-Director of the Sustainable Healthcare Education Network
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Indigenous Health and Research
February 21, 2018
In this Webalogue Dr. Travis Holyk explores the topic of hot button issues in the communities he works with and the community view of research. This is followed up by Dr. Henry Harder a registered psychologist who has been in the field of mental health, rehabilitation and disability management for over 30 years. Dr. Harder addresses the topics of research and mental wellness as it pertains to Indigenous health.
Speakers:
- Dr. Henry Harder, Dr. Donald B. Dix BC Leadership Chair, Aboriginal Environmental Health; Professor, School of Health Sciences, University of Northern British Columbia
- Dr. Travis Holyk, Carrier Sekani Family Services
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Ecohealth and Interdisciplinarity:
Exploring worthwhile linkages between the Ecohealth community and several other areas of study
January 24, 2018
Our work takes an interdisciplinary approach; working to connect the Ecohealth community with several other areas or fields where we believe that further engagement would be beneficial. We’ll be discussing our specific projects that draw worthwhile linkages between the Ecohealth community and areas such as disability studies, sustainability, ethics and law.
Speakers:
- Aryn Lisitza, BHSc (Hons.)- Undergraduate Researcher , Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary
- Dr. Gregor Wolbring- Associate Professor University of Calgary, Cumming School of Medicine, Dept. of Community Health Sciences, Stream Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
The presentation slides are available here
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From Backyard to Mountain Meadow:
Exploring the Spiritual and Cultural Dimensions of Ecohealth
November 22, 2017
In his talk, Dr. Daniel Coleman looked at what it would mean to recover the sacred in a broken place such as the city of Hamilton, Ontario, where he lives with its centuries of pollution and neglect? How might a desecrated land, a disrespected land, regain a sense of being “holy land”? “Holy” is a tricky word that can get us sidetracked with images of piety and self-righteousness, but it’s an important word for us to reconsider, because its root is the word for “hale”—meaning whole and healthy. So how might we regain a sense of the holy—this cosmic wholeness and health—in disrespected places and among their inhabitants, so that we can participate in the restoration of a holy, healthy land?
In her talk “Pilgrimage, sanctuary, and the place of parks and natural places in palliative care”, Dr. Sonya L. Jakubec focused on stories and lessons learned from research about parks experiences for people at end of life and experiencing palliative care. This talk highlighted accounts of pilgrimage and sanctuary – and the ways parks and nature teach us to grieve. Working in collaboration across health and parks sectors also pointed the way for an important professional practice pilgrimage – one returning palliative care back to social, public and natural places.
Presenters:
- Dr. Daniel Coleman is a settler scholar who lives in Hamilton, Ontario, and teaches at McMaster University where he studies and writes about Canadian Literature, whiteness, the literatures of Indigeneity and diaspora, and the cultural politics of reading. He has published numerous academic and creative non-fiction books as an author and as an editor. He is co-director, with his colleague Dr. Lorraine York, of McMaster’s Centre for Community-Engaged Narrative Arts.
- Dr. Sonya L. Jakubec is a Registered Nurse, and an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Her research is concerned with the interconnection of supportive environments and wellbeing across the lifespan.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Wildfires and ecosocial determinants of health:
Reflections on the experience in the NWT and BC
September 20, 2017
This webalogue explored the complex implications of wildfires for the ecosocial determinants of health, exemplified by experiences of recent wildfire events in the NWT and BC. Consideration of wildfire impacts on public health will be explored in relation to environment, social and cultural impacts, with consideration of impacts on communities, wildfire and ecosystems. The session commenced with a presentation by Courtney Howard and Warren Dodd, entitled “Summer of Smoke: A mixed-methods, community-based study investigating the health effects of a prolonged, sever wildfire season on a subarctic population” and was followed by a panel discussion with members of the Northern Health team involved in the Public Health response to Wildfire Events in BC (Raina Fumerton, Medical Health Officer, Northern Health). Discussion explored wildfires as an expression of interrelated issues, including the overlay of climate change on other ecosocial determinants of health.
Speakers:
- Courtney Howard, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, NWT
- Warren Dodd, University of Toronto
- Raina Fumerton, Medical Health Officer, Northern Health, BC
- Linda Pillsworth, First Nations Health Authority, BC
- Tom Okey, LEO Network, BC
- Margot Parkes, University of Northern British Columbia
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Introducing the Environment, Community, Health Observatory (ECHO) Network — Strengthening intersectoral capacity to understand and respond to health impacts of resource development
May 25, 2017
This webalogue introduces the ECHO Network, a 5-year research program funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Team Grant, focused on working together across sectors to take notice of – and respond to – the influences of resource development on health and well-being, with specific emphasis on rural, remote and Indigenous communities and environments. Launched in Prince George in early May, the project brings together university researchers and research partners across Canada and internationally, who have identified a need to better understand and address the health, environment and community impacts of resource development. A team of more than 60 people will work together as the ECHO Network (Environment, Community, Health Observatory) and will draw on expertise spanning health, social and natural sciences. The research draws on experience from four regional cases. Two are in British Columbia (one in the North and the other cross-province), and the others in Alberta and New Brunswick respectively. This session will provide an overview of the context and experiences of each regional case. The webalogue will orient to overarching goals of the ECHO Network project and introduce key research partners from the regional cases that are integral to the project design.
Speakers:
- Margot Parkes, Canada Research Chair in Health, Ecosytems and Society, Unversity of Northern British Columbia
- Céline Surette, Director, Masters of Environmental Studies, Associate Professor Dept of Chemistry and biochemistry, University of Moncton
- Sarah Skinner, Watershed Planning Coordinator, Battle River Watershed Alliance
- Melissa Aalhus, Technical Advisor, Health and Resource Development, Northern Health
- Maya Gislason, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
- Diane Kutzner, ECHO Network Research Manager, University of Northern British Columbia
- Lars Hallstrom, Director of the Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Communities
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Emerging directions in ecohealth education and training: Profiling a range of short-, online-, and hybrid- courses and resources, fuelled by CoPEH-Canada, EkoSanté, PAHO and EDGE
April 19, 2017
This session explored – through specific examples – the opportunities of considering the health of people, animals and environments concurrently and on a level playing field. The session draws on experiences of – and collaborations with – the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC). Leveraging from a particular focus (wildlife health) CWHC is an organisation that is actively responding to the challenge of changing the health narrative – shifting attention from a focus on environment and wildlife as a source of harms, to being partners in health. The speakers provide an overview and history of CWHC, including the challenges and opportunities arising from creating a national wildlife health strategy that is more than finding pathogens and pollutants. Attention was given to research that is adapting the socio-ecological model of human health to the context of wildlife as a way to explicitly foreground social dimensions into wildlife health. The session seeks to fuel discussion on whether or not we can have a place-based view of health that can describe and value the health of a place as a whole, recognizing the relationships of diverse species within each place.
Speakers:
- Craig Stephen, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative
- Julie Whitrock, PhD Candidate in Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Emerging directions in ecohealth education and training: Profiling a range of short-, online-, and hybrid- courses and resources, fuelled by CoPEH-Canada, EkoSanté, PAHO and EDGE
March 22 , 2017
This webalogue explores emerging initiatives in ecohealth education and training. We will profile several new developments, including a multi-site hybrid online/face-to-face course; an online course being designed for PAHO by the collaborative efforts of Ekosanté; and the development of the Ecological Determinants Group on Education (EDGE). You’ll leave with a better understanding of the ongoing interaction of research, education and practice in the ecosystem approaches to health, and have the chance to discuss and learn more about these and related initiatives.
Speakers:
- Donald Cole, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
- Jena Webb, Director of Projects, CoPEH-Canada
- Blake Poland, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Co-Chair (with Margot Parkes) of Ecological Determinants Group on Education (EDGE)
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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The University of Calgary Department of Ecosystem and Public Health:Who we are and what we do
February 22 , 2017
Join us as we take a look at the Department of Ecosystem and Public Health and it’s history of supporting the areas at the interface of human health, animal health and the environment. Dr. Susan Cork will give us a brief history of the department at the University of Calgary. Then we’ll hear from Dr. Alessandro Massolo in regards to his current work on the ecology of E. multilocularis in urban coyotes and discuss the human-animal-environment interactions and the importance of engaging an interdisciplinary team (i.e the One Health approach). We will then conclude with a short presentation from two of our vet graduate students (Dr. Matilde Tomaselli and Dr. Michele North) about their research and experiences in the Dept. as well as their work setting up a Calgary chapter of the Wildlife Disease Association.
Speakers:
- Dr. Susan Cork, University of Calgary Department Head Ecosystem and Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
- Dr. Alessandro Massolo,University of Calgary Adjunct Professor (Wildlife Health Ecology), Ecosystem and Public Health
- Dr. Matilde Tomaselli,University of Calgary, Dept of Veterinary Medicine Graduate, and PhD Candidate
- Dr. Michele North, University of Calgary, Dept of Veterinary Medicine Graduate, and PhD Candidate
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Aspiring towards healthier ecosystems, people, and animals:
Conversations on the 2016 One Health/EcoHealth Congress from
the perspective of emerging scholars and practitioners
January 18 , 2017
Speakers:
- Julia Kübler MSc Candidate in Health Sciences at HAW Hamburg, Germany who is currently doing a practical semester at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.
- Dr. Jordan Sky Oestreicher is a post-doctoral fellow at the Universidade de Brasilia at the Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentável
- Dr. Katie Clow Veterinarian and PhD Candidate in the Department of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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The Art and Science of Indigenous Health
November 23, 2016
Two presentations will be given followed by time for discussion and questions.
“Filling in knowledge gaps in pursuit of improving the regulatory structure of oil and gas development: A multidisciplinary approach to assess public health issues”
Élyse Caron-Beaudoin, M.Sc. PhD Candidate
Caleb Behn (Eh-cho Dene & Dunne-Za), Executive Director-Keepers of The Water
Using an ongoing project involving the measurement of pregnant women’s exposure to environmental pollutants in Northerneastern B.C., Élyse and Caleb will discuss how a diverse range of skills can enable teams to move from the lab bench to community-based research. Industry regulatory structures within a legal context will also be discussed.
“The Caretaking of Traditions through Photography”
Ryan Dickie- Photographer
Exercising First Nation culture inspires and instills the utmost pride in people. In today’s world, capturing and sharing these inspirational moments is integral in continuing to grow Indigenous culture for future generations. Ryan will be sharing his recent experience of taking part and documenting a moose hide tanning workshop as part of Fort Nelson First Nation’s 2016 Culture Days. His work is a reflection of his lifestyle. Remote, rugged, and vibrant landscapes are the trademarks of his imagery style. Venturing off the beaten path, Ryan actively pursues new, under-exposed areas of BC in an effort to inspire others to seek out such places themselves.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Towards the next generation of integrative cumulative impact assessments
October 26, 2016
The Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium (CIRC) is a research and outreach initiative based out of UNBC, exploring the positive and negative community, health, and environmental impacts of resource development in northern BC. As part of this ongoing work, and particularly to inform one of our current projects focused on developing the next generation of cumulative impacts monitoring and assessment tools, we will be hosting a full-day workshop in Fort Nelson on October 26. The focus of this workshop will be on sharing emerging promising practices in cumulative impacts monitoring and assessment, while also ensuring these events are accessible to all audiences regardless of their area of expertise. The workshop will both feature panel presentations that will profile some exciting projects happening in NE BC, including presentations from the BC provincial government, the BC Oil and Gas Commission, local government, First Nations, academics, and consultants.
Speakers:
- Chris Buse, CIRC
- Sean Curry, British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission
- Lana Lowe, Fort Nelson First Nation, and Alistair MacDonald, The Firelight Group
- Mike Gilbert, Northern Rockies Regional Municipality
- Art Fredeen, University of Northern British Columbia
To access the recording of this webalogue click here
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Navigating the Post Graduate Terrain
September 21, 2016
We will have three speakers who have recently finished their post graduate studies and are navigating the challenges and opportunities present as they traverse this new terrain. Discussion will include questions from participants and a chance to connect with others interested in ecosystem approaches to health.
Speakers:
- Dr. Mathieu L.S. Feagan
- Ellen McDonald, MSc Epidemiology Guelph University
- Julia Russell, MSc Community Health, UNBC
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Integrative approaches to environment, community & health:
Innovations and connections across local, Indigenous and geospatial knowledge
May 25/26, 2016
*note the two different dates, reflecting different time-zones in Canada, Oceania and Europe
For more information about this webalogue, including panelists’ powerpoints
click here
Integrative approaches to environment, community and health issues are demanding news tools and processes. Within our expanding digital toolscape is a growing suite of approaches and geospatial tools that are value and profile diverse knowledges in new ways, and create conversations across local, Indigenous, scientific and organisational knowledge, among others. This webalogue is designed as a panel discussion and Q&A session profiling work that is unfolding in Canada, New Zealand and elsewhere. Each of the panelists are actively involved with developing, trialing and/or applying integrative and geospatial tools with to enhance understanding and responses to interrelated health, environment and community concerns. Panelists will provide a ‘taster’ of work they are involved with in Canada, New Zealand and elsewhere; provide information and links to learn more; and participate in a discussion about the opportunities and implications for contributing to a next generation of integration and engagement.
Confirmed panelists:
- Garth Harmsworth (Landcare Research/Manaaki Whenua, NZ)
- Martin Bunch (York University, Canada)
- Scott Emmons (UNBC, Canada)
- Michael Brook (Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, LEO Network)
Moderator/Convenor:
- Margot W Parkes (CoPEH0-Canada and Oceania EcoHealth Chapter)
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions:
Events and adventures
May 12th, 2016
Exploring the issue of sustainability in higher education institutions. Representatives from Canadian universities share what they are doing to promote sustainability on their campus and discuss strategies for engaging students and faculty.
Speakers:
- Kyrke Gaudreau, B.Eng, M.E.S., Ph.D, Sustainability Manager, University of Northern British Columbia
- Margot Croft, B.A., BEd, MEd, Environment & Sustainability, Vancouver Island University
- Andrew Plunkett, M.E.S., LEED Green Assoc., Sustainability Coordinator, York University
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Post Graduate Pathways and Experiences:
Integrating Ecohealth into Development
March 16th, 2016
After completing the ecohealth field school in 2013 and 2014, Alexandra and Kate have been negotiating the challenge of integrating ecohealth principles and practice into their careers. This talk will centre around how they have decided to integrate ecohealth and development in Malawi and Uganda, outlining some of the challenges and experiences they have had.
Speakers:
- Alexandra Belaskie, HBSc, MES, Intern with Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief in Malawi as part of the International Youth Internship Program sponsored by Global Affairs Canada.
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Kate Bishop-Williams, BSc, MSc, PhD Candidate, University of Guelph
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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(Cumulative) Environmental Assessment in a new era of Canadian politics: Thoughts and reflections for Ecohealth research and practice
February 17th, 2016
Canada’s recent federal election saw a regime change in political parties. The Liberal Party of Canada was elected on a platform that included 106 areas of action ranging from broad notions of enhancing democracy (e.g. “electoral reform”) and improving the environment (e.g. “climate change) to more specific measures such as scrapping the purchase of F-35 fighter jets. The full implications of the Liberal’s election platform remains to be evidenced in policy, but signs of departure from the previous administration are becoming increasingly evident. This webinar explores a variety of aspects of the Liberal election platform (and associated policy developments) and their implications for Ecohealth research and practice. This includes a more targeted discussion of possible changes to the Environmental Assessment process in the context of BC and Canada at large.
Featuring:
Dr. Chris Buse, PhD – Project Lead, Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium, UNBC
Dr. Kevin Hanna, PhD – Director, UBC Centre for Environmental Assessment Research, UBC-O
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Ecohealthy people growing things:
Food, policy, people, communities and the places in between
January 20th, 2016
This webalogue featured four members of the Ecohealth community as they discussed their journeys with food, food systems, and growing various “things”, ranging from policy, to community development projects, teaching, and herb growing. Discussion stemmed from such topics such as:
– the relationships between food, a systems perspective, network connections and food equity
– using food and food issues as a way to conceptualize and contextualize larger global issues
– the intersections between growing food and the use of parks in addressing healthy equity
– the centrality of plants and growing things to building community and cultural diversity
Featuring:
- Yona Sipos, PhD, Food Systems Analysis
- Erika Mundel, PhD, Food systems and public health educator and scholar
- Liwei Chen, Education, Parks Canada
- Mary Jane Yates, BScN, MSc, Herb Grower and Program Lead, MPH, Health Promotion, School of Public Health, University of Alberta
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Exciting Intersections for Ecohealth in Action:
Northern remote communities+youth+new ways of engaging
November 25th, 2015
Learn about and discuss innovative work being conducted at the intersection of northern remote communities, youth and new ways of engaging. Discussion focuses on sharing experiences, strategies and day-to-day challenges for creating and maintaining synergies among those working in, and those interested in knowledge-in-action and intersectoral approaches, social innovation and youth empowerment.
Featuring:
- Mélanie Lemire, Ph.D-Department of Social and Preventive Medicine Faculty of Medicine, Laval University
“Purple tongue project” - Margaret Amos, Ph.D Student
McGill Initiative for Diversity and Global Education - Katelyn Friendship, MA-Acting Executive Director/Associate Director
- Norma Kassi, Director of Indigenous Collaboration
Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Urban social-ecological health equity
October 21st, 2015
with
Dr. Jeff Masuda, Canada Research Chair in Environmental Health Equity, Associate Professor, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies and Department of Geography Queen’s University
For decades, public and population health researchers have been called upon to both support and to lead a new social and political movement for health. In recent years, various urban social movements in support of food, housing, clean air, and other social-environmental determinants of health have begun to coalesce in their efforts to demand a wholesale urban transformation based on principles of sustainability and equity.
While such a movement provides a ripe opportunity for public health researchers and policymakers to support with interventions to promote socioecological health equity, we have persistently fallen short of this goal, choosing instead to continue on a path of framing approaches within an impoverished “evidence based” model that remains thoroughly “proximal” in its ambitions. The failure to grasp a central socioecological focus for the field reflects a longstanding contradiction public health that on the one hand “talks the talk” while on the other ignoring and even opposing urban social movements over the past 20-30 years. I’ll spend my time in this webalogue proposing specific suggestions as to why now is the time for this to change and how we might reposition ourselves in the world to accomplish this transformation. I would situate this problem, and the solutions within the context of the present “tyranny of evidence” that has returned to the forefront of mainstream public health.
and
Ms. Michelle Colussi, Manager at the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal
There is a growing focus being placed on the power of relationship and co-operation between neighbours as a means of strengthening everything from safety to emergency planning, food security and responding to climate change. Michelle will share the approach of the Transition Town movement and the Resilient Neighbourhoods initiative (a partnership between BC healthy Communities, Social Planning Council and Transition Victoria: www.resilientneighbourhoods.ca) in Victoria. Hear how these grassroots efforts are supporting celebration and mutual support, creating bumping places, gardens and orchards and structuring street level sharing economies. Explore the opportunities and challenges of scaling for systemic impacts inclusive of lower income families.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Canadian Inuit Social and Wildlife Issues
and
The Pivotal Role of Healthy Wildlife in Combating Food Insecurity in the North
September 16th, 2015
A look at all of the issues surrounding Inuit connection to environment and wildlife and the many social issues that impacts this relationship.
Wildlife are integral to the identity and physical, social and cultural health of many northern residents, providing food, a focus for maintenance of cultural identity, and income through a sustainable renewable resource economy. Climatic change, together with increasing reports of emerging pathogens and major disease events in important subsistence and commercial species, have raised concerns about the safety and sustainability of wildlife as a source of food. Importantly, mere reports of disease have had negative impacts on the country-food system in that inappropriate press and risk communication have lead to unfounded fear and rejection of traditional foods. In this talk I will discuss how emerging diseases in arctic wildlife have affected food security and real and perceived food safety. As well, I will elaborate on the importance of reliable wildlife health surveillance systems, combined with ongoing and appropriate risk communication, as essential components of any program aiming to improve food security across the North.
Speakers:
- Eric Loring, Senior Researcher and Policy Advisor Environment and Wildlife, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
- Susan Kutz, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Beyond the Rhetoric of Climate Change: seeking emergent actions
May 20th, 2015
Science and social action provide the greatest hope for a meaningful response to the challenges to planetary health in the face of global climate change. The forces of denial and indifference can be daunting when confronted by individual actors and even collective actions in the many realms and sectors that are attempting an intelligent response. However, as the forces of selfish globalization begin to fray and show their limitations it is timely to work towards emergent behaviour on the part of the constructive forces building towards an alternative, more hopeful future for the generations to come. This convergence can, indeed must, lead to collaborations that become more than the sum of their parts.
This webalogue featured actors and tools that are consciously working towards that convergence while at the same time building organizational responses at scales from the local to the global. Participants will be called upon to reflect on opportunities and mechanisms to foster convergence of such forces as public health and Ecohealth—at both personal and organizational levels.
Speakers:
- Dr. Sue Pollock, Medical Health Officer, Interior Health Authority of British Columbia
- Chris Buse, UNBC, PhD(c) Dalla Lana School of Public Health, UofT
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Activism in academia: A good idea, in theory
April 15th, 2015
This webalogue explored the different mechanisms by which people in academia may be able to overtly advocate (a.k.a. ‘do activism’) for the well-being of human beings and the ecosystems on which we depend. With a hostile political climate ever narrowing avenues for solidary action, we do not pretend to come with answers for how exactly to reconcile our perspectives and knowledge with whatever it is that drives us to act. Instead we hope to discuss options we are familiar with, add to that your ideas, and discuss some of the theoretical bases for taking actions that complement our convictions.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Ecosystem Approaches to Health field school: Participant Experiences
March 18th, 2015
As part of its educational mandate CoPEH-Canada hosts an annual Ecosystem Approaches to Health field school. Last year’s field school took place at York University in Toronto with participants traveling to various sites in the area. This webalogue will focus on the participants’ experience during the field school as well as how it has influenced them since. For more information about the field school click here. The webalogue features participants from both North and Latin America.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Cumulative Effects and Wildlife Health
February 18th, 2015
Speakers:
- Dr. Helen Schwantje, British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource, Wildlife Veterinarian
- Cait Nelson, British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource, Wildlife Biologist
- Julie Wittrock, University of Guelph, PhD Candidate in Epidemiology
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Monitoring Ecosystem Contamination: Innovations and understanding wildlife health
January 21st, 2015
Speakers:
- Dr. Judit Smits, Professor, Ecosystem and Public Health, University of Calgary
- “Ecosystem Health: Animal Sentinels on the Oil Sands”
- Dr. Erik Krogh, Chemistry Professor and Co-director of the Applied Environmental Research Laboratories
- “The ‘lab to field’ revolution: Real-time geospatial mapping of chemical contaminants, intelligent sampling, and the future of environmental assessments”
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Walking the Talk: place, public health, resource use and global change and a holiday roundtable
December 17th, 2014
A Dialogue and reflection on public health-ecohealth workshops hosted by CoPEH-Canada in 2014, focusing on the recent Western Node event titled: “Walking the Talk: place, public health, resource use and global change” held on Dec 3rd, in Richmond BC, prior to the Public Health Association Conference of BC conference. This dialogue was followed by an online “holiday roundtable” oriented to transitions toward, and plans for, 2015, including ongoing ‘Ecohealth in Action’ webalogues.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Moving from Theory to Practice: Our EcoHealth Journeys
November 26th, 2014
Speakers:
- Dr. Mira Ziolo, Consulting Veterinarian at Wildlife Rescue Association of BC, PhD Student, UBC Interdisciplinary PhD student
- Esther Tong, Telehealth Coordinator at First Nations Health Authority
- Lindsay Beck, Research Consultant and Project Coordinator at Castlemain and Coppermoon
This webalogue focuses on the experiences of ESaPs (Emerging Scholars and Practitioners in Ecohealth) and pragmatic application of EcoHealth theories.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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EcoHealth Call to Action on Climate Change: Connecting people and place for positive change
October 15th, 2014
Speakers:
- Maya Gislason, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
This webalogue invited all individuals and professionals interested in issues of climate change and health to explore how to take coordinated, hopeful, practical action on climate change. The webalogue introduced an EcoHealth Call to Action on Climate Change conference statement which was endorsed by over 500 delegates from 65 countries who convened at the 5th Biennial conference of the International Association for Ecology and Health in Montreal in August 2014. Participants of the webalogue were asked to share their stories of action and engagement around climate change, connecting people and place. Participants were strongly encouraged to consider exhibiting their work as an example of positive integrated action on climate change in a new Gallery of Actions on Ecohealth responses to Climate Change. Visit the Gallery of Actions here.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Responding to Climate Change: Action & Practices that link Health, Ecosystems and Society
May 28th, 2014
Speakers:
- Stacy Barter, BC Healthy Communities. “Health Impacts of Climate Change in BC: Health Authority Perceptions and Capacity for Action.”
- Noba Anderson, Regional district director, (Electoral Area ‘B’), Cortes Island: “Building local resilience: Climate Change and community resource governance”
- Lindsay Galway, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University: “Learning about how climate change is framed: insights from public health and water management”
- Tim Takaro, Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University: “Climate Change and Health Policy Group”
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
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Profiling EcoHealth in Action
April 30th, 2014
Speakers:
- Margot Parkes, University of Northern British Columbia.
- Craig Stephen, Centre for Coastal Health/University of Calgary.
To access the recording of this webalogue click here.
Ecohealth Knowledge to Action Research Group 