#canadian employment agency

[allfirstnationsjobs]

First Nations Employment: Advice for Underrepresented Job Seekers

The journey to securing meaningful employment can be challenging, particularly for underrepresented groups, including First Nations individuals, who often face additional barriers. Whether you are just starting in your career or looking to make a change, some specific strategies and tools can help you navigate the job market effectively.

Learn a practical advice for First Nations job seekers, including how to use job portals effectively, thrive in your career, and manage work while studying.

1. Ways to Leverage Job Portals Effectively

Job portals are invaluable resources for job seekers, offering a wide range of first nation job opportunities across various industries. For First Nations job seekers and other underrepresented groups, knowing how to navigate these platforms can significantly enhance your job search.

Customize Your Profile: Start by creating a detailed profile that highlights your skills, experiences, and career goals. Many job portals allow you to include keywords and phrases related to your field, which helps match you with relevant job postings. Make sure your profile reflects your unique strengths and qualifications.

Setup Job Alerts: Utilize the job alert feature to receive notifications about new job postings that match your criteria. This saves time and ensures you don’t miss out on opportunities that align with your career aspirations.

Use Filters Wisely: Most job portals offer filters to refine your search based on location, industry, job type, and more. Use these filters to focus on roles that fit your specific needs and preferences, such as jobs that offer opportunities for advancement or roles within organizations committed to diversity and inclusion.

Research Employers: Take advantage of the information available on job portals to research potential employers. Look for companies that have demonstrated a commitment to supporting underrepresented groups or have initiatives aimed at fostering diversity.

2. Ways to Thrive Your Career

Thriving in your career involves more than just landing a job; it requires ongoing development and strategic planning. Here are some tips for underrepresented groups to excel and advance in their careers:

Seek Mentorship: Finding a mentor who understands the challenges you face can be incredibly beneficial. Mentors can provide guidance, offer valuable industry insights, and help you navigate professional hurdles. Look for mentorship programs within your industry or community.

Invest in Continuous Learning: Stay competitive by continuously upgrading your skills and knowledge. Consider enrolling in courses, attending workshops, or obtaining certifications relevant to your field. Many organizations offer training programs designed to support career development for underrepresented groups.

Build a Professional Network: Networking is crucial for career advancement. Engage with professional organizations, attend industry events, and connect with peers on platforms like LinkedIn. Building a robust network can open doors to new opportunities and provide support throughout your career.

Advocate for Yourself: Don’t be afraid to speak up about your achievements and career goals. Be proactive in seeking feedback and expressing your interest in new projects or roles. Demonstrating your value and ambition can help you stand out and advance in your career.

3. Tips to Manage Work While Studying

Balancing work and study can be challenging, but with effective strategies, it is possible to manage both successfully. Here are some tips to help you navigate this balancing act:

Create a Schedule: Develop a detailed schedule that includes time for work, study, and personal activities. Prioritize your tasks and allocate specific time blocks for each activity. A well-structured schedule helps you stay organized and ensures that you can meet your commitments effectively.

Communicate with Employers: If you are working while studying, communicate your academic commitments to your employer. Many employers are willing to offer flexible work arrangements or adjust your schedule to accommodate your study needs.

Utilize Study Breaks: Make the most of any breaks between work shifts or study sessions. Use this time to catch up on reading, complete assignments, or review materials. Efficiently utilizing these breaks can help you stay on top of your studies without compromising your work performance.

Practice Self-Care: Balancing work and study can be demanding, so it’s essential to prioritize self-care. Ensure you get adequate rest, eat healthily, and manage stress through activities like exercise or mindfulness practices. Maintaining your well-being is crucial for sustained success in both areas.

Conclusion

For All First Nations jobs seekers and other underrepresented groups, navigating the job market and advancing in your career can present unique challenges. However, with the right First Nations Employment strategies and tools, you can effectively overcome these obstacles and achieve your career goals.

By utilizing job portals effectively, seeking mentorship, investing in continuous learning, and managing work and study commitments wisely, you can pave the way for a successful and fulfilling career. Remember, perseverance and proactive planning is a key to thrive in today’s competitive job market.

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #26

July 5-12 2024

The IRS announced it had managed to collect $1 billion in back taxes from high-wealth tax cheats. The program focused on persons with more than $1 million in yearly income who owned more than $250,000 in unpaid taxes. Thanks to money in Biden's 2022 Inflation Reduction Act the IRS is able to undertake more enforcement against rich tax cheats after years of Republicans cutting the agency's budget, which they hope to do again if they win power again.

The Biden administration announced a $244 million dollar investment in the federal government’s registered apprenticeship program. This marks the largest investment in the program's history with grants going out to 52 programs in 32 states. The President is focused on getting well paying blue collar opportunities to people and more people are taking part in the apprenticeship program than ever before. Republican pledge to cut it, even as employers struggle to find qualified workers.

The Department of Transportation announced the largest single project in the department's history, $11 billion dollars in grants for the The Hudson River Tunnel. Part of the $66 billion the Biden Administration has invested in our rail system the tunnel, the most complex Infrastructure project in the nation would link New York and New Jersey by rail under the Hudson. Once finished it's believed it'll impact 20% of the American economy by improving and speeding connection throughout the Northeast.

The Department of Energy announced $1.7 billion to save auto worker's jobs and convert factories to electronic vehicles. The Biden administration will used the money to save or reopen factories in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia and retool them to make electric cars. The project will save 15,000 skilled union worker jobs, and created 2,900 new high-quality jobs.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development reached a settlement with The Appraisal Foundation over racial discrimination. TAF is the organization responsible for setting standards and qualifications for real estate appraisers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics last year found that TAF was 94.7% White and 0.6% Black, making it the least racially diverse of the 800 occupations surveyed. Black and Latino home owners are far more likely to have their houses under valued than whites. Under the settlement with HUD TAF will have to take serious steps to increase diversity and remove structural barriers to diversity.

The Department of Justice disrupted an effort by the Russian government to influence public opinion through AI bots. The DoJ shut down nearly 1,000 twitter accounts that were linked to a Russian Bot farm. The bots used AI technology to not only generate tweets but also AI image faces for profile pictures. The effort seemed focused on boosting support for Russia's war against Ukraine and spread negative stories/impressions about Ukraine.

The Department of Transportation announces $1.5 billion to help local authorities buy made in America buses. 80% of the funding will go toward zero or low-emission technology, a part of the President's goal of reaching zero emissions by 2050. This is part of the $5 billion the DOT has spent over the last 3 years replacing aging buses with new cleaner technology.

President Biden with Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and Finnish President Alexander Stubb signed a new agreement on the arctic. The new trilateral agreement between the 3 NATO partners, known as the ICE Pact, will boost production of ice breaking ships, the 3 plan to build as many as 90 between them in the coming years. The alliance hopes to be a counter weight to China's current dominance in the ice breaker market and help western allies respond to Russia's aggressive push into the arctic waters.

The Department of Transportation announced $1.1 billion for greater rail safety. The program seeks to, where ever possible, eliminate rail crossings, thus removing the dangers and inconvenience to communities divided by rail lines. It will also help update and improve safety measures at rail crossings.

The Department of the Interior announced $120 million to help tribal communities prepare for climate disasters. This funding is part of half a billion dollars the Biden administration has spent to help tribes build climate resilience, which itself is part of a $50 billion dollar effort to build climate resilience across the nation. This funding will help support drought measures, wildland fire mitigation, community-driven relocation, managed retreat, protect-in-place efforts, and ocean and coastal management.

The USDA announced $100 million in additional funds to help feed low income kids over the summer. Known as "SUN Bucks" or "Summer EBT" the new Biden program grants the families of kids who qualify for free meals at school $120 dollars pre-child for groceries. This comes on top of the traditional SUN Meals program which offers school meals to qualifying children over the summer, as well as the new under President Biden SUN Meals To-Go program which is now offering delivery of meals to low-income children in rural areas. This grant is meant to help local governments build up the Infrastructure to support and distribute SUN Bucks. If fully implemented SUN Bucks could help 30 million kids, but many Republican governors have refused the funding.

USAID announced its giving $100 million to the UN World Food Program to deliver urgently needed food assistance in Gaza. This will bring the total humanitarian aid given by the US to the Palestinian people since the war started in October 2023 to $774 million, the single largest donor nation. President Biden at his press conference last night said that Israel and Hamas have agreed in principle to a ceasefire deal that will end the war and release the hostages. US negotiators are working to close the final gaps between the two sides and end the war.

The Senate confirmed Nancy Maldonado to serve as a Judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Maldonado is the 202nd federal Judge appointed by President Biden to be confirmed. She will the first Latino judge to ever serve on the 7th Circuit which covers Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

Bonus: At the NATO summit in Washington DC President Biden joined 32 allies in the Ukraine compact. Allies from Japan to Iceland confirmed their support for Ukraine and deepening their commitments to building Ukraine's forces and keeping a free and Democratic Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. World leaders such as British Prime Minster Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, praised President Biden's experience and leadership during the NATO summit

[aproposproposal]

I'm still in need, sorry

It's the Canadian in me to apologize. I need to pay for basic needs and getting my car fixed so I can go get traditional Iñuit food from the city airport.

I'm an unemployed nurse who has been royally screwed by institutional stigma against facial tattoos (which were completed in ceremony)

I'm trying to dig our family out of poverty by calling staffing agencies and my employer who is a really, really rough restaurant that's completely mismanaged.

Please help.

https://cash.app/$tuigana

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Whereas Canada has a legal obligation to prevent the crime of genocide, and specifically as to how it pertains to the group of Palestinians in Gaza, including Hamas whose plausible rights have been established by the International Court of Justice (ICJ); whereas Canada has the legal obligation to punish the crime of genocide, to prosecute constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials, and private citizens, and to create legislation to that effect; whereas, in its ruling of Jan 26 2024 on provisional measures in the case of the Application of the Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v Israel), the ICJ has legally bound the State of Israel “to take *immediate and effective measures* to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and *humanitarian assistance* to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”; whereas the State of Israel has made multiple and egregiously false claims in service of its continued belligerence against international law in the hostilities since Oct 7 2023; whereas Israel has recently levelled allegations against UNRWA employees with no publicly-available evidence to scrutinize; whereas Canada’s Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen has instructed Global Affairs Canada to suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) pending an investigation into the aforementioned allegations; whereas Minister Hussen has so instructed Global Affairs Canada to take action against UNRWA despite the appropriate actions taken by the Commissioner General of UNRWA, Frank Lazzarini to terminate the employment of those accused and to order a full and thorough investigation into the matter; whereas Minister Hussen has issued the instruction to Global Affairs Canada to suspend funds to UNRWA in the context of similar actions taken by several other States; whereas the withdrawal of financial aid from UNRWA has imperilled its ability to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza;

We, the undersigned, call upon the Canadian government to uphold its legal obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide specifically in regards to Articles I, II, III, IV, V, and VI.

Thinking of a rough draft petition. Would anyone sign this if it were real?

[mrsbeef]

Canadian union actors have been locked out of commercial work by union-busting agencies for over 500 days.

Because a lot of people don't really understand what is happening here, I'm going to take a moment to talk about what a lockout is.

A lockout is like the opposite of a strike: in a strike, workers withhold their labour until employers agree to their demands for improved conditions, while in a lockout employers essentially starve workers of work-- and by extension, crucially, wages-- to force them into accepting unacceptable conditions.

In the context of a factory, it might look like literally shutting down the factory because the owner can afford to simply eat the short-term loss while they sit and wait for the workers to grow desperate. Or they may bring in what are euphemistically referred to as "replacement workers". You may know them by the more familiar term: scabs. Those who are willing to put up with more for less, and in so doing worsen labour conditions across the whole industry. This is economically advantageous to the employers, and they can just sit there in comfort while they wait for the union and its members to break.

A lockout is a cruel power play in what is already an unequal relationship. It is intentional infliction of desperation and psychological distress.

The Institute of Canadian Agencies' lockout of ACTRA members has been going on for more than 500 days. It has intentionally inflicted more than 500 days of psychological distress and existential threat on thousands of people. And in the midst of this the ICA has done little but employ DARVO strategies (deny, attack, reverse victim and offender), when it has initiated this essentially in protest of not being given the freedom to slash union commercial actors' compensation by 80%. ACTRA has been ready and willing to bargain this whole time, but the ICA insists it's ACTRA holding its own members down.

The ICA's client companies are hugely recognised brands whose CEOs take home untold millions every year in salaries while the average ACTRA commercial actor makes well under 10k a year. Professional actors' work is important and needed-- if it wasn't the agencies wouldn't be bringing in scabs-- and yet they are forced into conditions where they literally cannot live. They cannot afford to put a roof over their heads and food on the table in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

PLEASE share this and let union actors know you stand with them. Boycott these companies who hire union-busting agencies. Write to them and let them know why. This fight has been long and demoralising, and folks are exhausted and sad, and given all the attention that has rightly been on the striking WGA and SAG-AFTRA members (with whom ACTRA has been rallying together in solidarity), their Canadian sibling union needs your solidarity and support too.

[antfishvo]

Strike vs. Lockout (What ACTRA has been dealing with)

So we all have a pretty good understanding of what a "Strike" is. But how many of you know what a "Lockout" is?

A labour strike is when workers are unable to reach an agreement during the collective bargaining process and collectively decide to stop working.

Makes sense.

Unlike strikes that are initiated by workers, a lockout is initiated soley by employers who refuse to provide work to workers as a tactic to pressure them into accepting the employer’s terms.

Gross.

This is what ICA (Institute of Canadian Advertising Agencies) has been doing to ACRTA (Canada's acting union) members for 500+ days.

Shame.

The mediator found that both parties were too far apart on issues regarding payment and AI regulations, and ended this round of mediation.

So what now?

We keep fighting.

We continue to boycott union-busting brands.

We continue rallying.

And we keep saying "Enough is Enough".

To peeps sharing and posting about what SAG-AFTRA and the WGA have been going through, I ask that you please also share this info as well.

Their fight is our fight.

If you would like to know more, please check out the following links. And make sure to follow ACTRA and their various other branches for up-to-date info.

[beardedmrbean]

If you plan on flying around the country in 2025 and beyond, you might want to listen up.

You have about 365 days to make your state-issued driver’s license or identification “Real ID” compliant, per the Department of Homeland Security.  

The Real ID compliance is part of a larger act passed by Congress in 2005 to set “minimum security standards” for the distribution of identification materials, including driver’s licenses. This means that certain federal agencies, like the Transportation Security Administration or DHS, won’t be able to accept state-issued forms of identification without the Real ID seal.

It's taken a while for the compliance to stick, with DHS originally giving a 2020 deadline before pushing it back a year, then another two years and another two years after that due to “backlogged transactions” at MVD offices nationwide, according to previous USA TODAY reports.

You won’t be able to board federally regulated commercial aircraft, enter nuclear power plants, or access certain facilities if your identification documents aren’t Real ID compliant by May 7, 2025. 

Here’s what we know about Real IDs, including where to get one and why you should think about getting one.

Do I have to get a Real ID?

Not necessarily. 

If you have another form of identification that TSA accepts, there probably isn’t an immediate reason to obtain one, at least for travel purposes. But if you don’t have another form of identification and would like to travel around the country in the near future, you should try to obtain one. 

Here are all the other TSA-approved forms of identification:

◾ State-issued Enhanced Driver’s License

◾ U.S. passport

◾ U.S. passport card

◾ DHS trusted traveler cards (Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST)

◾ U.S. Department of Defense ID, including IDs issued to dependents

◾ Permanent resident card

◾ Border crossing card

◾ An acceptable photo ID issued by a federally recognized, Tribal Nation/Indian Tribe

◾ HSPD-12 PIV card

◾ Foreign government-issued passport

◾ Canadian provincial driver's license or Indian and Northern Affairs Canada card

◾ Transportation worker identification credential

◾ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Authorization Card (I-766)

◾ U.S. Merchant Mariner Credential

◾ Veteran Health Identification Card (VHIC)

However, federal agencies “may only accept” state-issued driver’s licenses or identification cards that are Real ID compliant if you are trying to gain access to a federal facility. That includes TSA security checkpoints.

Enhanced driver’s licenses, only issued by Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Vermont, are considered acceptable alternatives to REAL ID-compliant cards, according to DHS. 

What can I use my Real ID for?

For most people, it's all about boarding flights.

You can only use your Real ID card to obtain access to "nuclear power plants, access certain facilities, or board federally regulated commercial aircrafts," according to DHS.

The cards can't be used to travel across any border, whether that's Canada, Mexico, or any other international destination, according to DHS.

All you have to do to get a Real ID is to make time to head over to your local department of motor vehicles.

Every state is different, so the documents needed to verify your identity will vary. DHS says that at minimum, you will be asked to produce your full legal name, date of birth, social security number, two proofs of address of principal residence and lawful status.

The only difference between the state-issued forms of identification you have now and the Real ID-compliant card you hope to obtain is a unique marking stamped in the right-hand corner. The mark stamped on your Real ID compliant cards depends on the state.

[communistkenobi]

In regards to ecology n the field of it my program does try and veer away completely from that idea of pristine wilderness and speaks a lot about the importance of traditional ecological knowledge (aka indigenous knowledge) its v late here so I'm not being super articulate but ecology as a field is trying to steer away towards the western school of thought, or at least that's been my experience. Its definitely difficult to stay true to that in practice tho when theres so much focus on "results" from funding sources. Idk maybe that direction is significantly different from other programs though

I’m not deeply engaged with ecology so apologies if I was being overly general. To clarify, some of my deeper issues with ecology as I have encountered it have more to do with institutional structures and financial incentives. Funding for departments engaged in environmental science can be pretty ghoulish (lab spaces named after oil companies who invested in the department are common, in my limited Canadian experience) and because the software used in environmental science (ArcGIS suite) has a functional North American monopoly and is therefore used in things like resource extraction and military action, I tend to de-facto be skeptical of enviro science positioning itself as more critical than other scientific disciplines. Common undergrad -> employment pipelines are either national parks jobs, environmental regulation agencies, and oil and logging companies. I know ecology is only a slice of environmental science so these are not all sins committed only by that field, but it exists in a larger context of some pretty gnarly financial architecture.

And this is also not unique to ecology - my own field (geography) has mountains of skeletons in its closet, it has similar histories and problems. But I’m saying all this because I tend to be wary of “critical” university programs because they’ll do like, land acknowledgements and an indigenous ways of knowing seminar (even multiple ones!), and then you take a look at their job fairs and funding streams and realise that they are structurally incapable of being critical in practice. Departments have to prove their students enter job markets at satisfactory rates in order to maintain or expand their departmental funding, fancy labs and study spaces tend to be the result of private donors, federal funding tends to favour research that stays in the arena of existing governmental policy - and many other things - and those incentives take precedence over critical praxis. Which again, not unique to ecology, that’s just a structural and historical issue with universities themselves

[immigrationagency]

Navigating the Path to Work in Canada: A Comprehensive Guide for Dubai Residents

Introduction: Dreaming of pursuing career opportunities in Canada from Dubai? With its robust economy, diverse job market, and high quality of life, Canada remains a top destination for skilled workers from around the world. However, understanding the intricacies of obtaining a work permit or visa can be daunting. This article serves as your roadmap, providing insights into the process and essential information for securing your Canada work permit or visa from Dubai.

Canada Work Permit from Dubai: Securing a Canada work permit from Dubai involves navigating through various steps and requirements. Dubai residents aspiring to work in Canada must first determine their eligibility and the type of work permit they require. Whether it's a temporary or permanent position, each category has specific criteria and documentation requirements.

Canada Work Visa from Dubai: Obtaining a Canada work visa from Dubai involves submitting a thorough application to the relevant Canadian authorities. Applicants need to demonstrate their qualifications, job offer, and intention to abide by Canadian laws and regulations. Additionally, understanding the visa application process, including forms, fees, and processing times, is crucial for a smooth and successful outcome.

Canada Work Permit Processing Time from Dubai: One of the primary concerns for individuals applying for a Canada work permit from Dubai is the processing time. The duration can vary depending on various factors such as the type of work permit, volume of applications, and processing efficiency. It's essential to stay informed about current processing times and plan accordingly to avoid delays in starting your Canadian employment journey.

Key Considerations:

Eligibility Criteria: Understand the eligibility requirements for different types of work permits and visas.

Job Offer: Secure a valid job offer from a Canadian employer before applying for a work permit or visa.

Documentation: Prepare all necessary documents, including identification, educational certificates, and employment contracts.

Application Process: Follow the application process meticulously, ensuring accuracy and completeness to expedite processing.

Immigration Consultants: Consider seeking assistance from reputable immigration consultants or agencies specializing in Canada immigration from Dubai for expert guidance and support.

Conclusion: Embarking on a career journey in Canada from Dubai opens up a world of opportunities for personal and professional growth. By understanding the intricacies of obtaining a Canada work permit from Dubai and staying informed about processing times and requirements, you can navigate the process with confidence. Remember to plan ahead, gather necessary documentation, and seek assistance when needed to make your Canadian dream a reality.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Red Team Blues Chapter One, part three

With just days to the publication of my next novel, Red Team Blues, I’m taking the chance to serialize the first chapter of this anti-finance finance thriller, and introduce you to Marty Hench, a 67-year-old forensic accountant who specializes in Silicon Valley finance scams.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/19/whats-wrong-with-iowa/#henched

Marty is ready to retire, but there’s just one more job he has to do — recover a billion dollars’ worth of cryptographic keys that are claimed by money-launderers, narcos, and shady US three letter agencies.

Here’s the previous installments:

Part one:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/17/have-you-tried-not-spying/#unsalted-hash

Part two:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/18/cursed-are-the-sausagemakers/#henched

Here’s where US readers can pre-order the book:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues

Here’s pre-orders for Canadians:

https://services.raincoast.com/scripts/b2b.wsc/featured?hh_isbn=9781250865847&ht_orig_from=raincoast

And for readers in the UK and the rest of the Commonwealth:

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/red-team-blues-cory-doctorow/7225998?ean=9781804547755

And now, here’s today’s serial installment:

I grunted noncommittally. Danny had been around since crypto meant “cryptography,” and I hadn’t figured him to become one of these blockchain hustlers. They’re the kind of smart people who outsmart themselves, especially when it comes to shenanigans, forgetting that their public ledger is public and all their transactions are visible to the whole world forever. Forensic accounting never had a better friend than crypto, with its mix of public ledgers, deluded masters of the universe, and suckers pumping billions into the system. It was full employment for me and my competitors until cryptocurrency’s carbon footprint rendered the earth uninhabitable.

“There are certain technical differences between Trustless and other coins. Will you allow me to explain them to you? I promise it’s germane and I’m not trying to sell you anything.” “Aw, hell, Danny, you can tell me anything. I just get sick of being hustled.”

“Me, too, pal. Okay, if you mentioned distributed sudoku puzzles, you know something about proof of work: the way blockchain maintains the integrity of its ledger is by having everyone in the system repeatedly do compute work that reaffirms all the entries in the ledger. So long as the value of all the assets in the ledger is less than the electricity bill for taking over the majority of the compute work, they’re safe.”

“That means that the more valuable all this blockchain stuff becomes, the more coal they have to burn to keep it all from being stolen,” I said. It was something I’d almost said to the bros at dinner the night before, but I didn’t want an argument to distract from the otherwise lovely time I’d been having with my entirely lovely companion.

“That’s fair,” he said. “That’s what every greenie who hasn’t received a couple of mil in donations from surprised crypto-millionaires will tell you. But, Marty, that’s a problem with proof of work, not with distributed ledgers. If you could build a blockchain that had a negligible carbon budget, you could do a lot with it.”

“Launder money. Badly.”

“That,” he said. “Lot of Chinese entrepreneurs and officials are anxious to beat currency controls. But it’s not just money, it’s anything you want to have universally available, unfalsifiable, and cryptographically secured.”

“Laundered money.”

He made a face. “Cynic. Not laundered money. Genocide-­proof ID. Cryptographically secured, write-­only manifests of a person’s identifiers, including nationality, vitals, and ethnic group, but each one has its own key, held by the Blue Helmets. You get to a border and you present your biometrics, and the UN tells the border guards your nationality but not your ethnicity.”

“Fanciful.”

“Cynic! Yeah, fine, no one’s doing it yet, but we could. All that blockchain for good shit that the hucksters talked up to make it sound like proof of work wasn’t a crime against humanity. Trust­ lesscoin lets you do them because it doesn’t need the sudoku.”

I dredged up memories of half-­digested podcasts I’d listened to on the road. “Is it a proof-­of-­stake thing?”

He snorted. “Don’t try to sound smart, Marty, you’ll sprain something. No, it’s secure enclaves. That crypto-­sub-­processor in your iPhone that Apple uses to keep you from switching to another app store? It can run code. What’s more, it can sign the output. So we can send you a program and check to see whether it ran as intended, because we know that the owner of a phone can’t override the secure enclave. Far as Apple’s concerned, iPhone owners are the enemy, and their threat model treats the device owner as an adversary — ­as someone who might get apps someplace that doesn’t kick a fifteen to thirty percent vigorish up to Apple for every transaction, depriving its shareholders of their rake.

“Any device with a secure enclave or other trusted computing module is a device that treats its owner as the enemy. That’s a device we need, because when you’re in the Trustlesscoin network, that device will defend me from you, and you from me. I don’t have to trust you, I just have to trust that you can’t break into your own phone, which is to say that I have to trust that Apple’s engineers did their job correctly, and well, you know, they’ve got a pretty good track record, Marty.”

“Except?”

He finished his lemonade and scowled at the reusable straw.

“Yeah, except. Look, Trustlesscoin is on track to become the standard public ledger for the world. I know, I know, every founder talks that ‘make a dent in the universe’ crap, but I mean it. You want to know how serious I am about this? I took in outside capital.”

He let me sit with that a moment. Danny Lazer, the man who ate ramen in a twenty-­year-­old, bent-­axle RV for decades with the love of his life so he’d never have to take a nickel from any of those bloodsuckers on Sand Hill Road, and he took in outside capital. Danny Lazer, a man who’d owned 75 percent of a unicorn, which is to say, seven-­point-­five-­times-­ten-­to-­the-­eight U.S. American Greenback Simoleon Dollars, and he took in outside capital.

“Why? And also, what for?”

He laughed. “Watching you work out a problem is like watching a bulldog chew a wasp, brother. You’ve got a hell of a poker face, but when you start overclocking the old CPU, it just melts. I’ll tell you why and what for.

“First of all, I wanted to create something for Sethu. She’s never had the chance to live up to her potential. She’s smart, Marty, smart like Galit was, but she’s also technical, and managerial, and just born to run things. I’ve never met a better candidate for a CEO than she is. And I’m not young, you know that, and there’s going to be a long time after I’m dead when she’ll still be in her prime, and I wanted to make something she could grow into and grow around her.

“I’d been playing with the idea behind Trustless since the early 2000s, when Microsoft released its first Trusted Computing papers, all the way back in the Palladium days! So Sethu and I hung up a whiteboard in the guest room and started spending a couple of hours a day in there. I didn’t want to bring in anyone else at first, first because it seemed like a hobby and not a business, and hell, every cryptographer I know is working seventy-hour weeks as it is.

“Then I didn’t want to bring in anyone else because I got a sense of how big this damned thing is. I mean, there’s about two trillion in assets in the blockchain today, and that’s with all the stupid friction of proof-­of-­work. When we lift the shackles off of it, whoosh, we’re talking about a ledger that will encompass more assets than the total balance sheets of twenty or thirty of the smallest UN members . . . ​combined.

“You know me, Marty. I don’t believe in much, but when I do believe in something, I’m all in. All. In. And so I brought some people in.”

“What for, though? Danny, how much of your Keypairs jackpot did you manage to blow? How much money could you possibly need, and for what? Are you building your own chip foundry? Buying a country?”

“We actually thought of doing both of those things, you know, but decided we didn’t need the headaches. The Keypairs money’s only grown since I cashed out, thanks to the bull runs. I can’t spend it all, won’t be able to. It would sicken me to try, because I’d have to be so wasteful to even make a dent in it.

“The reason I went for outside capital wasn’t money, it was connections.”

I groaned. Every grifter in private equity and VC-­land claimed that they had “connections” that represented value add for their portfolio companies. The social butterfly market was implausible on its face, and in practice, it was just a way of turning cocktail parties into a business expense. “Come on, Danny, you know people already.”

“Not these people.” And he did the thing. He looked from side to side, up and down. He turned off his phone and held his hand out for mine and carried them both to the little step next to the water feature and set them down on it so they’d be in the white-noise zone. He came back, looked around again. “I got signing keys for four of the most commonly deployed secure enclaves.” He looked around again.

“I think I know what that means, Danny, but maybe you could spell it out? I’m just a dumb old accountant, not a cryptographic legend like yourself. And for God’s sake, stop looking around. I’ll let you know if I see anyone sneaking up on us.”

“Sorry, sorry. Okay. The secure enclave gets a program, runs it, and signs the output. The secure enclave’s little toy operating system says that it does this reliably and without exception. You see a signature on a program’s output, you know the program produced it. That toy OS, it’s simple. Stupid. Brutal. Does about six things, very well, and nothing else. You can’t change that program. Secure enclaves are designed to be non-­serviceable. Even taking them off the mainboard wrecks them. You get them into a lab and decap them and hit them with an electron-­tunneling microscope, you still won’t be able to recover the signing keys or force a false sig.

“But if you have the signing keys? You can just simulate a secure enclave on any computer. Then you can run any operating system you want on it, including one that will forge signatures. You do that, and you can falsify the ledger. You can move unlimited sums from any part of the balance sheet to your part of the balance sheet. You can jackpot the whole fucking thing.”

I blew out air. “Well, that seems like a defect in the system, all right.”

“It can’t be helped. We call it Trustless, but there’s always some trust in a system like this. You’re not trusting the other users of the system or the company that made the software. You’re trusting that a couple of leading manufacturers of cryptographic coprocessors and sub-­processors, companies with decades of experience, will maintain operational security and not lose control of the keys that their entire business — ­and the entire business of all their customers and their customers’ customers — ­are dependent upon. You’re not trusting the other users, but you’re trusting them.”

“And yet,” I said, looking over at Sethu, who was painting away and performing an excellent simulation of someone who wasn’t eavesdropping, “you found someone willing to sell you some of those keys.”

“Yes,” he said and gave me a calm, no-­bullshit, eye-­to-­eye stare. “I did. It’s useful to have those, especially when you’re first kicking a new cryptocurrency around. You make a smart contract with a bad line of code in it, you create a bug bounty with an unlimited payout. So in the early days, when you’re figuring this stuff out, you do a little ledger rewriting.”

“You do rewriting on a read-­only ledger that no one is ever supposed to rewrite.”

He rolled his eyes. “Ethereum did it early on, moved fifty mil in stolen payout from a bad smart contract out of the crook’s account and back into the mark’s account. No one made too much of a fuss. I mean, the immutable ledger sounds like a great idea until someone no stupider than you gets taken for fifty mil, and then rewriting the ledger is just sound fiscal policy in service to fundamental justice.”

“But Ethereum told everyone they were doing it. Sounds like you did it all on the down low?”

“We were early. No one was even paying attention. All we wanted was a ledger whose early entries weren’t an eternal monument to my stupid mistakes as I climbed the learning curve.”

“Fine. Vain, but fine. Still, getting those keys meant a lot of power for a little reputation laundering.”

He sighed and looked away. “Yeah. The thing is, I’m not the only one who makes mistakes. We are aiming for trillions secured on our chain. Trillions, Marty. Ten to the twelve. It’s an unforgiving medium, and the stakes are high. The Ethereum lesson was clear: a couple of divide-­by-­zeros or fence post errors, a single badly typed variable or buffer overrun, and the whole thing could sink. I needed an eraser. Not on day zero but well before I attained liftoff.”

“Every hacker builds in a back door, huh?”

“Don’t call it that. Call it an Undo button.”

“Okay, then. An Undo button in a system whose cryptography is supposed to prevent undo at all costs. But not a back door.”

“You, my friend, are too smart. I miss the days when forensic accountancy and security engineering were distinct fields. ” “Me, too, pal. So what happened? Your keys took a walk?”

Tomorrow (Apr 21), I’m speaking in Chicago at the Stigler Center’s Antitrust and Competition Conference. This weekend (Apr 22/23), I’m at the LA Times Festival of Books.

[studyvisaexpert]

Top 3 In-demand Careers in Canada: Affordable DLI Programs for Overseas Students

The top 3 highly demanded jobs throughout Canada are Mechanical Engineers, Human Resource Managers, and Developers as per Randstad. It is a Consulting and Employment Agency Firm having 60-plus years of experience in the industry.  

Suitably, it can be anticipated that overseas students arriving in Canada can be inclined towards pursuing study programs that will equip them to get ready for careers in these highly demanded fields. You can avail of guidance and counseling from the Best Overseas Education Consultants in India for better insights to plan your studies in Canada.

So with the aim of assisting overseas students in their pursuit of achieving their objective, we have here compiled the top 3 DLIs - Designated Learning Institutions. These institutions offer affordable study programs to assist overseas students in establishing their careers in the highly demanded three employment sectors in Canada.

You must note here that the below comparison is based only on the tuition fees from the institutions and does not include the complete fees (Health/dental, Student services, Recreational, etc). Unless specified, the estimates for tuition fees are for 2023-2024 and in CAD.

For compiling the below lists, we have compared the highly popular DLI in every Province in Canada as per the QS 2023 World University Rankings. The comparison of the DLIs was crucial as these Canadian educational institutions have been authorized by the Government of Canada to accept overseas students. By studying at these establishments overseas student graduates can get the PGWP - Post-Graduation Work Permit.  

Job # 1: Developers

The first place in the list of Randstad's top 10 jobs in Canada trending in 2023 has been occupied by Developers. These code and design programs according to the needs of users: from Business Accounting Programs to Smartphone Apps to Operating Systems.

Usually, individuals in this role have a Computer Science background. All the ten DLIs assessed for the list offer programs in Computer Science. The most affordable are offered by U-Manitoba, Memorial, and UPEI.

(Note that only general estimates are offered by Memorial regarding tuition instead of program-specific costs inclusive of overseas students.)

1.   UPEI – A full year of tuition fees for Undergraduate Overseas Students is projected to be $6, 570  for Faculty of Science Programs

2.   Memorial – The tuition fees for overseas students is estimated at $20,000

3.   U-Manitoba - Undergraduate Overseas Students are required to pay tuition fees of $20,400 annually for the Science Program

The DLIs with highly expensive programs are:

·         McGill: $58,158.90 annually approximately for the Bachelor of Science program

·         UOT - $60,510 annually approximately for the Bachelor of Computer Science program

Job # 2: Human Resources Managers

The second highly demanded job in Canada according to Randstad is HR Managers. Generally, individuals in these roles supervise the human resource functions of a company inclusive of hiring and workforce management.

Again, all the DLIs assessed offer a study program related to HR. However, a few institutions offer a complete 4-year Undergraduate Program while others provide Certification Programs with a duration of less than 12 months.

Nevertheless, the most affordable programs in HR for overseas students are at:

1.   Dalhousie: $3,135*

2.   UOT: $6,051**

3.   UPEI - $6,570 yearly tuition

* HR Management Certificate Program at Dalhousie is inclusive of 3 courses each having duration of 12 weeks

** Estimations for a half fee for the course are offered by UOT for their Certificate Program in Human Resources Management

The DLIs with highly expensive programs in HR are:

·         UBC – annual tuition fee for overseas undergraduate students is $58,153.50 for Bachelor of Commerce program students

·         McGill - annual tuition fee for overseas undergraduate students is $65,604.30 for Bachelor of Commerce program students

Job # 3: Mechanical Engineers

The third highly demanded job in Canada according to Randstad is Mechanical Engineers. Individuals in these roles develop and design machines that resolve human issues find ways to automate and control manufacturing systems and resolve diverse environmental issues.

The most affordable programs in Mechanical Engineering for overseas students are found at the following institutions in Canada that have been listed along with the respective tuition fees estimates:

1.   UPEI - $6,750

2.   Memorial: $20,000

3.   UNB: $22,297; for overseas students studying Engineering program

The DLIs with highly expensive programs in Engineering are:

·   McGill: $59,654.40 annually approximately for the Bachelor of Engineering program

·   UOT - $65,410 annually approximately for the Bachelor of Engineering and Applied Science program

So this was a brief comparison of the DLIs/educational institutions in Canada with the most affordable tuition fees for the top 3 highly demanded occupations.If you wish to enroll in any of the top 3 highly demanded career study programs in Canada, contact Study Visa the Best Study Abroad Consultant in India.

[rabbitcruiser]

Workers Memorial Day

Workers’ Memorial Day is an international holiday marked on April 28 annually. It is observed to raise awareness of the importance of workplace safety, as well as commemorate all the workers who have lost their lives due to work-related illnesses and those whose lives have been put on hold due to injuries that have incurred while working. According to figures, the number of people who get killed at work is higher than those who lose their lives to wars and drug abuse combined! Labor unions around the world observe this day to remember their fallen heroes and discuss measures to ensure safe workplaces.

History of Workers Memorial Day

Although it only became widely popular when the U.S. first celebrated it on April 28, 1989, Workers’ Memorial Day had been celebrated several years before then by Canada on the same day. Perhaps, the unpopularity associated with Canada’s first observation can be credited to the fact that it was celebrated under a different, albeit similar name. Regardless of who first observed it though, the day was inspired by the signing of the Occupational Safety and Health Act into law in 1970 and the formation of the OSHA on April 28, 1971.

In the early years of the signing of the OSHA into law, the celebration of the Workers’ Memorial Day was centered in North America. The holiday only attained international recognition in the last parts of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries. In 1985, the Canadian Labor Congress pronounced April 28 as an annual day of remembrance — which is the anniversary of a Workers’ Compensation Act signed as far back as 1914. Progressively, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization (A.F.L.-C.I.O.) declared April 28 as Workers’ Memorial Day to honor the thousands of people who have been injured or lost their lives on their jobs. The U.K. followed suit with their celebration in 1992.

Since the adoption of the holiday by the International Labor Organization (I.L.O.) in 2001, many countries are now actively participating in observing it, with some deeming it fit to confer the holiday a public holiday status. Furthermore, to add value to the holiday, from 1996, annual themes began to be assigned to each year’s celebration of the day.

Workers Memorial Day timeline

1971 OSHA is Formed

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is formed.

1989 A.F.L.-C.I.O. Declaration

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations declares April 28 as Workers' Memorial Day.

1992 Introduced in the U.K.

Tommy Harte introduces Workers' Memorial Day in the U.K.

1996 Themes Begin to Be Set

The I.C.F.T.U. begins to set annual themes for each Workers' Memorial Day.

2001 New Declaration

An agency of the United Nations — I.L.O. — recognizes Workers' Memorial Day and declares it World Day for Safety and Health at Work.

Workers Memorial Day FAQs

What does a labor union do?

Among many other things, labor unions are charged with fighting for the betterment of their workers’ welfare, remunerations, and all things needed for them to work in a favorable environment and for decent financial gratification. Generally, labor unions serve as mediators between their members and authorities. Their impacts have been felt by both employees and employers over the years.

Is a labor union a good thing?

It is. This is evident in the many advantages and privileges unionized workers get over their non-unionized counterparts. Most significant changes in employees’ welfare and safety were achieved through the struggles of labor unions. They do have their setbacks though.

Why do people not like unions?

Most governments and employers detest labor unions because of their strong affection for riots and strike actions. To the unions, those two are the most effective languages employers understand, and many a time, they do succeed in pressing home their demands with the employers.

How to Observe Workers Memorial Day

Inform the public about work safety

Strive for a safer environment at work

Honor the memories of fallen workers

Go out there and educate the public on the importance of staying safe while at work. Also, tell them the possible risks associated with their various works.

If you are working in an unsafe or potentially dangerous environment, get people to rally behind you and ask for a safer work environment from your employers. You might just be a cause for a good change.

Be it a close relative, friend, acquaintance, or stranger, honor the memories of those fallen heroes, who died in the cause of their works. Pay tributes to them or their loved ones.

5 Interesting Facts About Workers’ Memorial Day

It was first celebrated in Canada

It was unpopular at first

America made it popular

It became international

It's a public holiday in Gibraltar

Canada was the first country to mark it although under a different but similar name.

The event was first known but not quite as popular as it became in the later years.

It only began to be widely recognized when the U.S. marked it.

A host of country trade unions in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and elsewhere observe it.

While it is simply a national holiday in other countries, it is a government-free public holiday in Gibraltar.

Why Workers Memorial Day is Important

It reminds us of successful struggles

It increases the unity between workers worldwide

It gives workers a more amplified voice

Workers' Memorial Day reminds us of how effective calling out to authorities for good changes can be. By doing so, we may be able to save someone's life.

Whichever continent you happen to be from and whichever race you belong to, this day increases the bond and unity between workers in achieving a common goal. We love this!

Workers around the world use the day to loudly voice out their work environment and other pressing demands. Considerate employers, on the other hand, listen to the demands.

Source

[info-copa]

Trauma-Informed Programming

Trauma is described by the CAMH as “the lasting emotional response that often results from living through a distressing event” such as sexual assault, violence, an accident, or a long term, repeated pattern such as childhood abuse (sexual, physical, emotional), sex trafficking, war and displacement, discrimination, and incarceration.

When we consider rates of interpersonal violence as well as discrimination and inequity in our society, it may not be surprising that some estimates suggest that over 75% of Canadian adults have experienced significant trauma in their lifetimes, including adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs. ACEs include traumas sexual and physical abuse, neglect, or family instability due to divorce, suicide, incarceration, or parents or caregivers with substance abuse or mental health issues. Research shows that between half and two thirds of Canadians have experienced one or more ACEs before the age of 18.

A traumatized individual (survivor) can suffer for a lifetime from repercussions of the loss of personal power, control and agency, and their ability to trust or feel safe. They are also more vulnerable to chronic disease, anxiety and mental health issues, loss of cognitive function, and behavioural problems. ACEs can affect brain development and future educational and employment opportunities, cause lifelong depression and relationship issues, and increase vulnerability to ongoing trauma such as sex trafficking.

Considering the toll of trauma on individuals, families, the workplace, and communities, it is no wonder that we hear the term “trauma-informed” more and more often to describe health care practices, therapies, even leadership models that recognize and seek to accommodate survivors of trauma.

But for the COPA National team, being trauma-informed is not a new approach at all, as our organization was founded almost 30 years ago on the principles of trauma-informed practice. To this day, all our programming and resources are still developed and delivered with a trauma-informed approach.

The origins of our approach were a disturbing event in the late 1970’s in Columbus, Ohio. When a 7-year-old girl was raped, the local school and community were thrown into turmoil. Shocked, disturbed, and frightened, the community was desperate to prevent this from ever happening again. Community members approached the local sexual assault centre (Women Against Rape) and asked them for help. Workers from the centre rallied to help the community find answers and created a school-based program called the Child Assault Prevention (CAP) Project. The CAP Project was so innovative and successful that it spread quickly across the United States, throughout the world, and into Canada.

Today, COPA National is one of 4 CAP projects in Canada, and is also a regional CAP training centre. We have been using this unique and effective prevention curriculum since COPA was founded in 1995, in schools, community organizations, and the wider communities. Using CAP as inspiration we have developed a range of resources and programs for different groups - including immigrants and refugees. The CAP Project is the cornerstone of all of COPA National’s programs. Its unique vision, principles, and approach are at the core of our resource development.

Fundamental to CAP’s vision of violence prevention is the recognition of assault as a violation of human rights, expressed through the assertion that all people and all children have the right to be “safe, strong and free”. This basic premise underpins the foundational principles that form the basis of the CAP Project:

Prevention starts with breaking the silence and secrecy and debunking the myths surrounding violence against children, women, and all marginalized groups.

Effective prevention strategies address the social roots of violence: inequity and hatred.

People and communities have the right to information, skills and resources that will enable them to take back their power through capacity building.

These principles and approaches dovetail with the 6 guiding principles of a trauma-informed approach offered by SAMHSA's National Center for Trauma-Informed Care in the United States:

Safety

Trustworthiness and transparency

Peer support

Collaboration and mutuality

Empowerment, voice, and choice

Acknowledgement of cultural, historical, and gender issues

How is COPA National’s programming trauma-informed?

COPA National’s approach to the development of programming and resources reflects our care for the individual and their experiences and at the same time addresses social, institutional, and systemic issues. Designed to mitigate harm to the survivors of trauma, they are, in fact, welcoming and inclusive practices that work for all humans. We are creating spaces where marginalized people and ALL people are seen and heard and have a voice – or in other words, where all children, and all people, have the right to be safe, strong and free.

Below is a brief discussion of how we continue to incorporate trauma-informed principles into our prevention programming. COPA National also strives to espouse these principles internally within the organization to ensure coherence between what we practice and what we preach.

Our programming is rooted in awareness of the factors that increase vulnerability to assault, aggression, discrimination, child abuse, and other traumatizing events

The strong theoretical framework that underlies and informs COPA National’s programming is what makes it so unique and powerful.

We believe that lack of power—social or personal—underlies all situations involving assault, which is by definition an abuse of power. Inequities and exclusion increase vulnerability to assault, triggering and perpetuating a cycle of violence against children, women, and all other marginalized social groups. Strategies for assault prevention are only effective when they promote equity and inclusion by facilitating the individual and collective empowerment of socially marginalized groups and individuals.

We recognize and make linkages in our programming between the different types of violence and harassment that members of marginalized social groups (children, women, LGBTQ2+, IBPOC, etc.) experience every day, and that are normalized.

Our understanding is that trauma is widespread and that those affected by it are everywhere, including in our workshops and trainings. Thus, every time we work with a group of people, we ensure that we actively recognize the presence of survivors and take their experiences into account.

Psychological and Physical Safety

Safety is key to a trauma-informed approach.

In COPA National programs, we begin to create psychological safety at the start of every workshop by generating a set of agreements with participants - children, youth, and adults. Participants identify their needs for a safe environment and commit to:

fostering a positive and inclusive space for LGBTQ2S+

respecting what others say

practising non-judgment,

listening when others speak

holding in confidentiality what others share

We continue by recognizing that survivors may be present, and naming their courage. We acknowledge that some topics we will discuss may be difficult and may elicit painful emotions, while emphasizing that we will also focus on positive strategies for prevention. We encourage those who feel the need to seek support, either from COPA National facilitators or from services in the community.

We ensure the physical safety and well-being of survivors by:

arranging in advance with schools that kids who are triggered by the content in the workshops have permission to leave in order to protect themselves.

ensuring there are at least 2 facilitators in every workshop or training: one to facilitate, and one to observe and offer support to those who are visibly triggered by the content of the workshop.

inviting participants to speak with us at the end of workshops, providing an opportunity for them to access support and resources. COPA National facilitators have all received empowerment-based crisis intervention training offered in-house and are up to date with what resources exist so that they can link those who need them with the appropriate resources.

Collaboration

Active listening is foundational to everything we do. Whether we are facilitating discussions or providing support to individuals during program implementation, we listen deeply to the stories of those who have experienced assault and trauma. New programming and resources are created in consultation with them and adapted according to their feedback. We know that listening, consulting, and integrating them within our programs is part of the healing process for survivors of trauma.

For example, A Circle of Caring and Joining the Circle, toolkits intended to foster the well-being of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students at home and at school, were developed by COPA National in grassroots collaboration with Indigenous communities all over Ontario. We sought the wisdom and guidance of people and groups from different communities, and met with hundreds of family and community members, and leaders. It was important to us to ensure that the content in the toolkits was what was needed by the communities and that it was also responsive to the context of historical and cultural trauma.

Another example of this type of collaboration is Virtu-elles, COPA National’s cyber-violence prevention program, an online workshop developed in consultation with witnesses and survivors of online violence against women and with front-line workers from women’s organizations.

Our Whole School Prevention program Change Our World is part of a repertoire of educational resources to promote equity and inclusion. It was developed through a consultation process with a wide range of equity-seeking individuals and organizations. Change our World also includes a consultation process with each school we work with. A committee of allies is created within the school to assist the change process. In this way, we not only recognize and elicit the experience and knowledge of those within the community, but we deepen the potential for ongoing and transformational change by leveraging allies of this change.

Yet another example of this is in our role as provincial coordinators of Ontario’s Francophone network of Settlement Workers in Schools (TÉÉ). When creating the conditions of success in schools for new arrivals, we form committees of student allies within the schools we work with that include those who have already gone through the experience of being a new arrival.

COPA National approaches program delivery as an ongoing and never-ending consultation. Our contact with students, parents and guardians, teachers and other schools staff represents a precious opportunity to listen and learn about their experiences and to identify emerging issues.

And fundamental to how we work and how we view things at COPA National, is our belief that kids have much to contribute, and wisdom to share with us. We share power with kids, and we recognize their knowledge and elicit their wisdom. We also model this way of being to the adults we work with.

Capacity Building

We believe that certain social factors such as a lack of information, dependence, and isolation, make children and women (and all marginalized social groups) particularly vulnerable to assault.

Therefore, all resources and activities created, developed, adapted, and disseminated by COPA National strive to reduce the vulnerability of children (and women, and members of all marginalized social groups) to assault. We do this in the following ways:

1) We facilitate people’s empowerment with TOOLS NOT RULES, sharing problem-solving tools and strategies that build their capacity to prevent violence and take care of themselves and others. We always frame it as tools not rules – in other words, as choices and not imposed. Trauma comes from loss of power and choice, so we aim to provide those who experienced trauma with opportunities to take back their power and build their confidence by making choices and taking action.

2) We aim to break the silence and secrecy surrounding violence against children, women, and other marginalized groups by providing accurate information and resources, addressing stereotypes and myths/false information around all forms of violence and its root causes, such as sexism, racism, etc.

3) We encourage children to seek and develop peer and adult support, and we educate adults on how they can provide empowering and respectful support to children. Problem-Solving Together is an excellent example of a tool that builds this capacity. It is a practical guide to supporting children who are struggling with a problem and also to helping them develop the ongoing ability to solve problems. This approach can be used with adults as well as children, modifying it as needed.

We suggest that adults who support safe, strong, and free children model positive action, respect the rights of children while seeking opportunities to share power with them, and recognize the capacity of a person to change. In our blogs, you will find many tools to support this approach. Here are 3 blogs about bullying that explain how to do this, step-by-step.

Intervene with the child who is being bullied

Intervene with the child who witnesses bullying

Intervene with the child who is bullying

The importance of community

The Child Assault Prevention curriculum (CAP) was originally developed in response to the need of a community to know how to prevent the tragedy of child sexual assault. Thus, the whole idea of CAP is community-based. We believe that trauma-informed work needs to consider a more holistic approach through community mobilization and capacity-building. We know it can be a powerful force for positive change when we create spaces in our communities and schools where marginalized people are seen and heard and have a voice – and where they can explore together how to take care of themselves and others.

Our belief is that anyone can learn our approach, and we pick and choose our own facilitators from the community, based on their perspectives and their communication skills, and not only their professional standing. We provide them with training in respectful and empowering approaches to facilitating discussions, and to supporting and listening to children and adults. We do not set ourselves up as the experts, rather we recognize the wisdom of children, trauma survivors, and community members.

One of the ways in which COPA National is unique is that we offer programming to kids, their parents and caregivers, and to educators – the whole circle of care surrounding a child. When everyone is equipped with tools and strategies, kids reap the benefits, as the adults in their lives are collaborating to enhance their well-being. When everyone shares a collective understanding, it is more likely that each child will be safe, strong, and free.

Another innovative aspect of how we approach trauma-informed programming, is through whole school interventions such as Change Our World and Our Power in Adversity. These programs align not only with trauma-informed principles of consultation, collaboration, and capacity building, but also with the current understanding of successful approaches to change management (Peter Block, 2011 & Edgar Schein, 1999). This systemic approach to individual and collective transformation through empowerment can have a profoundly healing and transformative effect when embedded in a system like a school or a community.

COPA National has been operating according to trauma-informed principles for almost 30 years now – since our inception. What has impelled us more than anything over the years is our wholehearted commitment to the PREVENTION of violence and child abuse. Our trauma-informed approach, and the underlying theory of who is vulnerable and why, is what makes our prevention programming effective. Recognizing the social roots of all forms of violence including child abuse, we seek to bring about the social change needed to ensure that all children, from whatever social group, are safe, strong and free. By eliciting the wisdom and participation of survivors, we have been able to develop programming, interventions, and resources that are powerful, engaging, and that really work.

[tdspersonnel123]

The Best Kept Secrets About Recruitment Agency

As a Canadian-owned and operated recruitment agency with over 40 years of professional experience, TDS Personnel takes pride in helping companies make the right hires to propel their businesses. We support both candidates and companies in realizing their full potential.

Work with an elite team from a professional recruitment agency in Toronto and turn your passion into a profession. Whether you are seeking a permanent career or a temporary assignment, TDS Personnel offers you exposure to some of the most recognized and respected employers across Ontario.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

"Students doing graduate-level research say Canada risks losing its future scientists to other countries because the dollar amounts of annual grants have remained stagnant for nearly 20 years.

A Canada Graduate Scholarship from one of the three federal research funding agencies is $17,500 per year for a master's student or $21,000 per year for a doctoral student. Those amounts have not changed since 2003.

In return for that funding, the recipients are expected to work full-time on their research, and in some cases are explicitly banned from spending more than 10 hours per week on any other paid employment. 

"Definitely below the poverty line in any capacity," said Sarah Laframboise, a PhD student in biochemistry at the University of Ottawa. 

Laframboise is one of the organizers of a campaign called Support Our Science, calling on the Trudeau government to boost graduate student funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council."

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[finlaure13]

CTV News

Why it's 'very hard' to find work in Canada

Published Sept. 17, 2024 2:53 p.m. ADT

For every vacant job in Canada, there are 2.4 unemployed people.

That was the picture recorded from April to June in Canada, according to Statistics Canada’s second-quarter report on job vacancies.

Vacancies have steadily fallen since the glut of nearly one million open posts in 2022. At the time, one in three businesses had trouble hiring staff due to a labour shortage. Two in five had issues finding skilled staff, and one in four would have to fight to keep them.

The agency says available wages, which may have been lower than what prospective employees were willing to accept at the time, could have limited hiring. Some businesses also said they were weathering a spike in retirements among boomer-aged workers.

Since then, vacancies have dropped. Unemployment has gained steadily to 6.6 per cent from the 4.8 recorded in the summer of 2022. Last quarter, there were just 580,000 available jobs in Canada -- a far cry from one million.

The drop in vacancies can be attributed in large part to few openings for jobs requiring high school education or less, according to StatCan. There were 30 per cent fewer vacancies than last year in those fields, accounting for 70 per cent of the overall decline.

The trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations saw the largest losses in vacancies over the last year. By the end of the second quarter, open jobs in those fields were 30 per cent fewer than the year before.

The deepest losses were among transport trucking jobs, construction helpers and labourers, material handlers, and residential commercial installers and servicers.

How did we get here? Low wages and 'lousy' jobs

“It’s very hard to find a job in Canada today,” said Jim Stanford, economist and director for the Centre for Future Work, a non-partisan policy think tank.

He called Canada’s job market “unacceptably weak,” arguing the government and the central bank overreacted to pandemic “shock.”

During the early pandemic years, Stanford recalled, the Canadian government largely halted immigration and the regular operations of several industries.

Vacancies skyrocketed once the government ended lockdowns and lifted restrictions, he said. However, Canada’s workforce changed.

“Canadians did not give up on work,” Stanford told CTVNews.ca. “When those jobs disappeared, they figured out what to do. … They went and got more training.”

And when the jobs reappeared, many expected better wages, he says.

Source: Statistics Canada

“Employers in those industries cried, saying people ‘don’t want to work,’” and demanded the government take measures to remedy the worker shortage, he continued. In response, the Liberal government eased rules on temporary foreign workers, among other measures.

The Temporary Foreign Workers Program allows businesses to hire foreign staff in the absence of Canadian labour.

Since then, the program has drawn the ire of international spectators. Notably, the United Nations called it a “breeding ground for contemporary slavery.”

To remedy the influx of foreign workers, the Liberals have since announced cuts to the program. Stanford said the Bank of Canada should continue to lower interest rates to reduce costs on Canadians and ease the strains of post-pandemic economic recovery.

And if the government is capable of reducing unemployment and increasing job vacancies, “employers will cry again,” he said.

“Next time we hear that cry, we should ignore it.”

With files from The Canadian Press