CFHSS is pleased to congratulate one of its Executive Committee members, Karen Grant, on her new appointment to Provost and Vice-President, Academic and Research of Mount Allison University’s. Currently Vice-Provost (Academic Affairs) at the University of Manitoba, Professor Grant has been a board director for the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), where she contributed to prepare a successful application for CFI funding for the Digital Content Infrastructure for the Human and Social Sciences.

We wish her continued success in her new role.

You can read Mount Alison’s release here.

On June 16, Canada’s Inuit leaders unveiled a national education strategy aiming to improve the educational experiences of Canadian Inuit youth – 75% of whom do not finish high school. Developed by a committee of Inuit leaders chaired by Mary Simon, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the strategy emerged out of the 2009 Accord on Inuit Education.

The strategy includes ten comprehensive and wide-reaching recommendations, including initiatives around engaging parents, creating bilingual programs, establishing a northern university, standardizing the Inuit language system and addressing teacher education and curriculum. While funding for the strategy has yet to be announced, the Inuit leaders are confident that all levels of government will support the strategy and improve education for Inuit youth.

CFHSS applauds the strategy and the leadership of the National Committee on Inuit Education. Achieving the recommendations outlined in the report will have far-reaching effects not only on education for Inuit youth, but on preserving Inuit language and culture within Canada.

Read the full report on the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami website.

In May 2010, the federal government put out a call for submissions around Canada’s digital economy, asking for Canadians’ ideas around what a national digital strategy should include. With the help of a Taskforce comprised of leading Canadian researchers, the CFHSS submitted a brief. Since the consultation ended, the federal government has been developing a digital economy strategy.

While we won’t know the contents of that – or any – federal digital strategy until after the election, the issue has remained on the political parties’ agendas throughout the campaign so far. The Liberal’s platform includes a new tax credit for digital start ups – they also released a more detailed digital economy plan last week. The Conservatives highlight building digital infrastructure and enhancing digital skills. The NDP platform commits to prohibit usage-based billing and enshrining “net-neutrality” in law. Today, they also announced a digital plan that would ensure internet access for all Canadians.

Michael Geist provides more coverage of the issue over on his blog – read his analysis of how the party platforms compare on the digital economy. Apparently this issue isn’t going to fade – recently becoming a hotly contested issue at an all-candidates debate in Kitchener-Waterloo.

This week was busy for several party leaders, with Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Gilles Duceppe and Jack Layton facing off for two hours in the English and French debates. Read the analysis of the English debate by Malinda Smith, the Federation’s VP Equity Issues, as she explores the place that equity, diversity and social justice held in the debate dialogue.

Earlier in the week, the NDP released their platform. For the PSE community, the platform promises $800 million in transfers to the provinces to alleviate rising tuition fees. The platform also outlines how the NDP would increase funding to the Canada Student Grants program by $200 million per year, focusing on Aboriginal, disabled and low income students. In a further measure to address increasing education costs, the education tax credit would also be raised from $4,800 to $5,760 per year.

In other PSE related news, students across Canadian campuses have been holding Vote Mobs – non-partisan, peaceful rallies showing politicians that students are a voting force to be reckoned with. Since the first vote mob at the University of Guelph on March 31, vote mobs have been held at over 25 universities and cities across the country.

This week, election news was filled with party platform announcements, with a few relevant post-secondary initiatives. The Liberals released a platform on Monday outlining a Veterans’ Learning Benefit, and proposed lifting the cap for Aboriginal student funding as well as creating a Canada Métis scholarship program and refinancing the First Nations University. The Liberals also promised to restore the long-form census.

The Green Party’s platform proposes an increase to federal transfers to the provinces for PSE, funding for a needs-based Canadian National Student Loan and Bursary program and measures to eliminate student debt.

Also focusing on federal transfers to provinces, the Bloc Québécois platform states, « Le Bloc Québécois continuera de protéger le choix politique que le Québec a fait de développer sa propre politique d’enseignement universitaire et de frais de scolarité et exigera que le gouvernement fédéral transfère au gouvernement du Québec les sommes qu’il économise sur le dos des étudiantes et étudiants québécois grâce aux crédits fédéraux sur les frais de scolarité. »

The Conservative Party announced Thursday that it would provide loans to newcomers for skills training and upgrading so their credentials can be recognized in Canada. Their platform, released today, echoes Budget 2011 by promising to enhance loans for part-time students, support research partnerships through the granting councils and implement their digital economy strategy.

The NDP platform is due to be released Sunday, in time for Tuesday’s leaders’ debate.

Looking for more information on the parties? Check out their platforms:

www.blocquebecois.org
www.conservative.ca
www.greenparty.ca
www.liberal.ca
www.ndp.ca

Ryan Saxby Hill
Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

This is a big week for the Federation. It all started with the Federation’s executive committee last night, continues with a meeting of the board of directors today and culminates in our first annual conference over the weekend. The Federation’s board will be dealing with all of the administrative issues needed to keep a national, relevant non-profit organzation running, and then will join our General Assembly and members of the public in a discussion on the health and vitality of the humanities on Saturday.

There are a few ways that you can get involved with us this weekend. Firstly, if you have specific comments or questions for our executive feel free to post them here, send to me over twitter (@fedcan) or email me at media@fedcan.ca and I’ll do my best to get you answers.

Secondly, we will be live-blogging several of the sessions tomorrow right here on the Fedcan Blog, allowing you to follow along with us and add your comments to the discussion.

Thirdly, and importantly for those of you who might have other plans for your weekend, we’ll have videos of the presentations this weekend available for you in the coming weeks available on our website (and here on the Fedcan Blog). We hope that these will form a set of lasting resources featuring scholars such as Louis Menand and creators such as Johanna Skibsrud. You can find the entire agenda online here.

This conversation about the future of the humanities – and what the Federation’s role will be within it – will continue. We hope that our meetings over the next few days will provide a compelling and constructive start.

The Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences was invited to testify copyright committe today on Parliament Hill. Jay Rahn, the Chair of the Federation’s Taskforce on Copyright provided insight into how the bill could effect Canadian researchers and scholars.

In summary, the Federation is suggesting two main shifts in the bill:

• The phrase “such as” or “including, but not limited to” should be added in the list of fair dealing excpetions to make it suggestive rather ahn exhaustive
• The language concerning technological protection measures (TPMs) should be amended so it is not an offence to circumvent a TPM for actions that are otherwise non-infringing

The Federation is supportive of copyright reform and is working hard to ensure that the final form of bill C-32 reflects the reality of research, teaching and learning in the digital age. You can find a copy of Jay’s testimony to the committee online here.