This has been a week of mourning. On Tuesday, a mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in northeastern British Columbia killed eight people, including five children. A small community of 2,400, where the mayor says he doesn’t call residents “residents,” he calls them “family” was shattered in minutes. Canada lowered its flags. The nation…

There is something deeply uncomfortable about being told to die quietly. On February 9, 2026, Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych arrived at the Olympic track in Cortina d’Ampezzo wearing a helmet painted with the faces of more than twenty Ukrainian athletes killed by Russia’s war. Figure skater Dmytro Sharpar, killed in combat near Bakhmut. Yevhen…

Plant the First Seeds of a 12-Year Cultural Journey Ukrainian identity is under attack. Museums bombed. Archives destroyed. Villages occupied. Elders passing without their stories recorded. Language fading with each generation in diaspora. This challenge is a response: create videos, preserve culture, build a permanent digital archive that can never be destroyed. The Ukrainian Roots…

On Awareness, Forget-Me-Nots, and a Book Born from Stories That Changed Everything January is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month in Canada — a time dedicated to shining a light on dementia, the people living with it, and the millions of family members and caregivers who walk beside them every day. Across the country, the Alzheimer Society of…

Supporting Mike Parsons’ 9Genders Vision Through Health Research An Exciting Opportunity to Transform Healthcare Imagine a world where every person—regardless of gender identity—feels seen, respected, and accurately represented in their own medical records. Right now, medical charting systems remain largely rooted in binary frameworks that leave many people invisible. We believe it’s time to change…

A submission to BC’s Post-Secondary Review — and an invitation to collaborate globally. Dear Colleagues, Leaders, Educators, and Everyone Who Cares About Students, Something extraordinary is happening in British Columbia right now. The provincial government has launched a sweeping review of its entire public post-secondary system. The reason is stark: 20 of 25 institutions are…

There are Saturdays when you stand in the cold and wonder if anyone notices. There are Saturdays when the wind bites through your gloves and the traffic rushes past without slowing down. And then there are Saturdays like today — Saturdays that remind you, with absolute clarity, why you have never missed a single one.…

Whether you’re a researcher, educator, practitioner, or student — 2026 is packed with opportunities to connect, learn, and grow. Here’s a comprehensive, chronological guide to social work conferences happening across Canada and around the world. Pictured above: my wooden conference badge from a recent event in Salzburg, Austria. Before we dive into the 2026 calendar,…

Documenting the Killing of Alex Pretti and the Machinery of State Narrative Control On January 24, 2026, federal Border Patrol agents killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who cared for American veterans at the Minneapolis VA hospital. What followed was a precise demonstration of how authoritarian power operates: not just through violence, but…