“It’s a one-of-a-kind facility that’s going to be extremely useful to understand the impacts of climate change,” said David Barber, a professor and Canada Research Chair in Arctic-system Science who headed the CMO. “The shipping lanes have never really been open for human use and now they’re opening up. Though we’re not used to thinking of it that way, the Arctic gives Canada access to a third ocean.”

Feiyue Wang, professor of environment and geography at CEOS and OSIM chief scientist at CMO

Feiyue Wang, a professor and Canada Research Chair in Arctic Environmental Chemistry at the Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS) in the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources, is the chief scientist in charge of the OSIM pools.

“The shipping lanes have never really been open for human use and now they’re opening up. Though we’re not used to thinking of it that way, the Arctic gives Canada access to a third ocean.”

“I’m a chemist, so I think of this as a bigger beaker,” Wang jokes. His research has focused on legacy contaminants such as mercury and now emerging contaminants like oil spills and microplastics.

More seriously, Wang describes the windows built into the pools as an education opportunity that will allow students and community members to watch processes like how oil freezes in ice.

“The main thing is these youth are the future of Arctic research. Scientists, researchers and leaders will come out of these youth. We want them to take the next step and be a researcher in their own homeland, connected to science and technology, and linked with traditional knowledge.”

The outreach includes Frontier School Division students who are welcomed to shadow CMO researchers or work on science fair projects.

“We tend to think we’re a prairie province or a Canadian shield province, but we’re a coastal province. People fly to Florida to see the ocean, and I always wonder, why not fly to Churchill instead?” says Wang.

As the largest facility at the University of Manitoba, the CMO is opening with high expectations, given the impact of climate change, the risk of spills from a fuel delivery to Arctic communities and increased ship traffic in general. There’s also oil exploration and drilling in the Russian Arctic, as well as U.S. interest in Arctic oil.

“In the early days, we were a small group and we wouldn’t have been able to get the funding for the CMO, But over time we got bigger and better, and we were able to compete for funding.”

“Regardless of whether Canada continues to extend our moratorium on oil exploration and drilling in Arctic marine waters, should there be a spill in international waters, the oil knows no boundary and could still end up in Canadian waters, for example, the 2020 Norilsk oil spill in Russia,” says Gary Stern, board co-chair of the CMO and lead of the GENICE project. With a background in contaminant research, he studies to what extent native bacteria present in Arctic marine waters could naturally respond and biodegrade the spilled oil. The research ties into how remote communities might be prepared to be the first responders to an oil spill—or know when to stand back—when a spill occurs near them.

Gary Stern, board co-chair of the CMO and adjunct professor of environment and geography at CEOS and lead on the GENICE project

“For people who live in the Artic, this is important for them. They’re the first responder to oil spills and it’s important for them to understand how to respond,” says Stern. It’s another facet of the community relations that CMO researchers have built over time.

Designed to work with industry partners, the CMO has collaborated with organizations such as Manitoba Hydro, Environment Canada, NASA and other space agencies. On the academic side, the facility gives the opportunity to collaborate with researchers at international institutions like University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University in Denmark, and University College London, along with domestic universities both large and small, ranging from the University of Calgary to the University of Quebec at Rimouski. Undergraduate students from UM in engineering, chemistry, geography and social science may find jobs at the facility this summer.

All those scientists visiting Churchill represent a boon to the region’s economic development. Barber noted Churchill’s long-time mayor has been lobbying for a facility similar to the CMO for almost 20 years: “He sees science as an economic pillar of the community.” If the CMO has been a long time in coming, it echoes how UM has built its research strengths in the Arctic. “In the early days, we were a small group and we wouldn’t have been able to get the funding for the CMO,” said Barber. “But over time we got bigger and better, and we were able to compete for funding.” The result of those years of efforts is now coming to fruition.

Research Vessel William Kennedy.

Oceanographic Research

CJ Mundy, professor of environment and geography at CEOS and EO chief scientist at CMO

Operated along with the Arctic Research Foundation, the R/V William Kennedy has a shallow draft that allows it to sail near the shores of coastal communities where large icebreakers can’t reach.

“We’ve been able to sample shallow coastal areas that we wouldn’t be able to typically access with a larger vessel like the CCGS Amundsen,” says CJ Mundy, chief scientist in charge of the CMO-EO. “It opens up research in the coastal Arctic, like Hudson Strait, Hudson Bay, Foxe Basin and James Bay.”

One annual task for the ship is to visit the two environmental observation buoys that are moored to iron train wheels in the centre of Hudson’s Bay. The visit lets researchers download data collected over the past 12 months on oceanographic factors like salinity and temperature. “Each sensor has its own data and battery pack. You hope the sensor doesn’t leak—or the battery fail,” says Mundy, an associate professor in the department of environment and geography whose research includes algae, phytoplankton and kelp. “Sometimes it’s perfect, but the risk of sensor failure cannot be avoided. I always feel nervous when deploying and retrieving the sensors every year.” The batteries are designed to last for 24 months, in case a winter of thick ice means the ship can’t make the trip in August.

“When I’m talking to my friends, they’re surprised we have a marine observatory in Manitoba,” says Mundy. “We’re the single largest international group that focuses on sea ice, for many good reasons. One of them is the fact that Manitoba has ocean-front property on the Arctic Ocean.”

Visit the Churchill Marine Observatory on our website.

Take a virtual tour aboard the research vessel William Kennedy.

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Taking up the work of reconciliation

Canadian reconciliation barometer

Centre for Human Rights Research

Celebrating its 10th anniversary

Transforming agriculture

Leveraging technology

Grounded perspective

Artworks connect to the natural world

Saving lives with data

Long-term partners get quick results

Research leader

An excerpt from a conversation with Dr. Digvir Jayas

Funding for the TRC began in 2007, and it took several years to define its mandate. Its work concluded in 2015 when it transferred all of its records to the safekeeping of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), created in fulfillment of part of the TRC mandate as a permanent resource for all Canadians.

Ry Moran, associate university librarian – reconciliation, University of Victoria. Photo: Nardella Photography

When Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its 94 calls to action in 2012, it was a big question for all of Canada: of how—and even if—this work would be taken up. It would take years to achieve. And how would we know when we’d arrive at Reconciliation?

But as many Indigenous leaders and educators point out, because it’s relational in nature, Reconciliation is less of a question of “arrival,” and more a matter of working for continual, incremental progress in building understanding and relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.

“We have a number of goals, one of which is to understand what Reconciliation means to Indigenous and non-Indigenous in Canada.”

And now, with the inauguration of the Canadian Reconciliation Barometer project, the digital tools that have become common over the past decade will help to assess the progress being made.

“We have a number of goals, one of which is to understand what Reconciliation means to Indigenous and non-Indigenous in Canada,” says the project’s principal investigator, Katherine Starzyk. As an associate professor of psychology at the University of Manitoba, Starzyk focuses on psychometrics in her academic work—relying on theory and consultation to know what questions to ask and then large surveys as well as advanced statistical methods to develop statements or questions that are valid and reliable.

Monument located at Long Plain First Nation, to those killed in the 1942 airplane crash that killed students returning home from residential school.

How to measure progress?

Ry Moran calls the Barometer “a complementary tool” to the work being done by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), which was created in fulfillment of part of the TRC mandate as a permanent resource for all Canadians. Moran worked as the first director of the NCTR, established in 2015.

Simply put, the Barometer will provide more data for how we are doing as a nation, he says. “Whether we are taking substantial steps in improving the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, [and] whether or not the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples are being protected and promoted.”

Starzyk notes that the project currently has 13 indicators of Reconciliation, which may evolve as the project continues.

To pinpoint factors that could be used to measure progress over time, the project drew on input from Survivors, Elders and Reconciliation leaders, and research through NCTR, including Survivor statements and transcripts.

“We wanted to listen to people rather than just come up with an idea ourselves,” she explains.

MacRae Library at Long Plain First Nation

The research is being led by a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, and the project has also partnered with Probe Research to increase its polling capacity.

Highlighting the gaps in understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada and comparing progress across sectors of society, the Barometer’s current indicators include: Good understanding of the past and present, Acknowledgement of ongoing harm, Respectful relationships, Personal equality and Systemic equality.

Defining Reconciliation Forward

Any attention to its progress equally brings into view the multifaceted aspect of Reconciliation and what it means—how it’s understood by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, notes Brenda Gunn, current academic and research director at the NCTR. Gunn, who is also a professor at UM’s Faculty of Law, joined the project in 2021 after starting her NCTR position.

Gunn says that a great value of the Barometer is how it “provides a perspective on Reconciliation, and a definition and a place to work from.”

“There are lots of definitions out there, but part of what we have here [with the Canadian Reconciliation Barometer project] is a definition and an approach and indicators of Reconciliation that are grounded in the years of research that are drawing on existing research [through NCTR]. But the other starting point is that residential schools are just one part of a broader colonial project that was grounded in law and policy for the assimilation of Indigenous peoples.”

“The hope is for the findings to help inform future public policy,” Gunn adds.

“So if we accept that Reconciliation is complicated and that residential schools were part of a coordinated approach to [Indigenous] assimilation grounded in law and policy, then I hope that it becomes clear that part of what we need to do in achieving Reconciliation, moving forward, is to … address the laws and policies that supported residential schools, and its legacy as it exists today—because we know the impacts are ongoing.”

Monument at Millbrook, near Truro, Nova Scotia paying tribute to Glooscap—a legendary figure to the Mi’kmaq people of Nova Scotia.

The Long Walk Toward Reconciliation

For, as Moran asserts, “The harm inflicted upon Indigenous peoples is not only a problem for Indigenous peoples. It is a Canadian problem that requires all Canadians to take responsibility and action to repair the damage done.”

“The harm inflicted upon Indigenous peoples is not only a problem for Indigenous peoples. It is a Canadian problem that requires all Canadians to take responsibility and action to repair the damage done.”

The Barometer is intended to help prevent regression and ensure continued commitment to and investment in Reconciliation, as he puts it.

“The idea of a just, fair and equitable society—and Canada —still has to be created, and the continuous nature of it is something emphasized by the calls to action.”

Starzyk agrees. “The walk toward Reconciliation will be a long one and lead us down many paths.”

Read more about the Canadian Reconciliation Barometer project and its first report, released in February 2022

Watch the Café Scientifique discussion on “The Canadian Reconciliation Barometer” (Jan 11, 2022)

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Research Leader

An excerpt from a conversation with Dr. Digvir Jayas

Centre for Human Rights Research

Celebrating its 10th anniversary

Transforming agriculture

Leveraging technology

Grounded perspective

Artworks connect to the natural world

Saving lives with data

Long-term partners get quick results

Marine science

Marine science in Canada’s third ocean

Karen Busby

A few months into the COVID pandemic, she took on the challenge of keeping the centre dynamic by designing research projects and public programming suited for virtual connection. One of the first online events Perry chaired was on work, care and human rights in the age of COVID. Training researchers to podcast was also on the agenda.

There are some upsides to lockdowns, such as the ability to Zoom in top speakers from across Canada and beyond as the interdisciplinary research centre turns 10.

As a historian, Perry is taking the centre in new directions that complement the work done by founding director and law professor Karen Busby. The centre’s most recent seminar series included speakers on the contemporary implications of Canada’s history of enslaving black people, interning Ukrainians, turning away Asian migrants, purging queers and displacing Indigenous people.

Adele Perry.

“It is an honour to work to build the CHRR in ways that speak to an ongoing pandemic and the pressing need to connect research to present-day barriers that too often keep people from living full and rich lives,” Perry said.

“It is an honour to work to build the CHRR in ways that speak to an ongoing pandemic and the pressing need to connect research to present-day barriers that too often keep people from living full and rich lives”

Visit the Centre for Human Rights Research online

Centre for Human Rights Research Timeline

2009

UM’s strategic plan identifies human rights as a priority, recognizing that the Canadian Museum for Human Rights will help Winnipeg become a globally recognized centre for human rights.

2010

Karen Busby receives $75,000 from UM’s Academic Enhancement Fund to establish CHRR, with support from the Faculties of Law, Education, Arts and Social Work.

Fall 2011

Launch of CHRR Student Speakers Bureau. Launch of the first annual Critical Conversations seminar series on an emerging human rights topic. This credit course for Law and graduate students is also open to the public.

Feb 2012

A proposal coordinated by CHRR is submitted to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to establish what will become the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Apr 1, 2012

CHRR is granted official status and core funding by UM’s board of governors.

2012–13

CHRR’s research on the human right to drinking water and sanitation is funded by all three of Canada’s main research granting agencies:

• Soil scientist Annemieke Farenhorst is awarded a $1.65-million NSERC grant to train Indigenous and non-Indigenous science and engineering graduate students to work towards water and sanitation security in First Nation communities.
• CHRR director is awarded a $200,000 SSHRC grant to explore the right to clean water in First Nations.
• Community Health Sciences professor Brenda Elias and Karen Busby are awarded $25,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Jun 2013

First Anishinaabe nibi inaakonigewin (water law) multi-day, outdoor gathering led by Law professor Aimée Craft.

Oct 2013

Special issue of Canadian Journal of Woman and the Law guest edited by Karen Busby on feminist approaches to assisted human reproduction.

Oct 2015

The Idea of a Human Rights Museum book is published.

Jan 30, 2018

A proposal co-ordinated by CHRR to establish Canada’s first interdisciplinary Master of Human Rights degree program is approved by UM’s board of governors.

Feb 2020

Publication of Achieving Fairness: A Guide to Campus Sexual Violence Complaints co-authored by director Busby.

Jul 1, 2020

Distinguished Professor of history and women’s and gender studies Adele Perry takes over as CHRR director.

May-Jun 2021

Perry and her colleagues receive two SSHRC awards to:

• Launch the At the Forks online meeting place for conversation about the intersection between Indigenous rights and human rights.
• Synthesize knowledge about Indigenous Women, Two-Spirit People and Public Transit in Western Canada.

Jul 2021

The Canadian government agrees to an $8-billion settlement for a First Nations drinking water lawsuit. Arguments based on CHRR research results informed the First Nations negotiating strategy.

Jan 2022

The latest Critical Conversations seminar series focuses on Human Rights and Historic Wrongs.

ResearchLIFE

ResearchLIFE highlights the quest for knowledge that artists, engineers, scholars, scientists and students at UM explore every day.

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Taking up the work of reconciliation

Canadian reconciliation barometer

Research leader

An excerpt from a conversation with Dr. Digvir Jayas

Transforming agriculture

Leveraging technology

Grounded perspective

Artworks connect to the natural world

Saving lives with data

Long-term partners get quick results

Marine science

Marine science in Canada’s third ocean

Jayas was educated at the G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in Pantnagar, India; the University of Manitoba and the University of Saskatchewan. In addition to his current role, he served the UM as Associate Vice-President (Research) for eight years, Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Head of the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Interim Director of the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals. He has also served nationally as Interim President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada and Interim-Director (CEO) of TRIUMF (Canada’s particle accelerator centre). He is a Registered Professional Engineer and a Registered Professional Agrologist and previously held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Stored Grain Ecosystems.

What are some of the initiatives you are most proud of during your term?

The new internal funding programs initiated to support researchers, such as enhanced start-up funding, internal grants funding for all disciplines and other funding programs such as University Collaborative Research Program and University Indigenous Research Program. The other area which I can say is contribution to enhancement of research infrastructure. A lot of funding came through CFI and other federal and provincial sources, during my term. Research infrastructure has a total investment of over $145 million in CFI funding alone. I would also include an almost 50% growth in research funding during my term. The 2020/2021 total sponsored research income was a record $231 million.

“I have a high regard for researchers in all units of the university who continue to work very hard to grow the research enterprise. Their commitment to research excellence I greatly appreciate.”

I am also proud of the initiatives I’ve launched that engage and support undergraduate research at UM: the Undergraduate Research Awards, the Undergraduate Research Poster Competition as well as Science, Engineering and Technology Day [for high school students in Manitoba]. Another initiative would be Transformational Partnerships in 2013 [a new approach at that time in Canada], which brought research expertise together with industry to help solve their problems and also removed barriers to using the IP that traditionally had been there.

What major institutional priorities have you been involved with?

I am also honoured to have been involved in the bidding process to bring the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to the UM campus and its support in the early years. The Canada Research Program Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) targets: UM has always exceeded expectations of the program from both the discipline perspective and the designated group perspective. What contributions have you been involved with nationally? Serving on TRIUMF and NSERC boards – the national entities that support the research enterprise across Canada. I was also involved in coordinating research nationally by facilitating gatherings of national VPRs twice and by serving as U15 Research Committee vice-chair for 2 years.

How do you feel research admin has changed and what’s stayed the same?

Certainly, what has stayed the same is always the commitment to support the researchers and supporting best applications possible for funding opportunities. It is a lot more complex research enterprise in the sense that expectations have changed over the years in relation to financial accountability, EDI, heightened regulatory requirements, the responsible conduct of research framework, and most recently, research security.

Who are some of the mentors or role models who influenced you the most in your career?

Early on, Dean Emeritus of the Price Faculty of Engineering, Garland Laliberte, who was my department head when I was hired in the then Department of Agricultural Engineering [which became what is now Biosystems Engineering]. As well as Ross Bulley, who followed Garland as department head. During my term in administration, I would say that the leadership traits I saw exhibited by Joanne Keselman (Provost Emeritus), Emőke Szathmary and David Barnard (Presidents Emeriti) certainly influenced me. I appreciate the opportunity UM has given me to do this role. The UM has treated me so well I have never been tempted to leave.

What’s next when your term ends?

My plan is to graduate my current graduate students [8 in total]. Write a book. Organize the 2024 international Controlled Atmospheres and Fumigation in Stored Products conference. After that, I plan to go back to my department [Biosystems Engineering] and certainly do the teaching but also try to hopefully develop a unique research program focused on training of graduate students.

Watch the full interview:

ResearchLIFE

ResearchLIFE highlights the quest for knowledge that artists, engineers, scholars, scientists and students at UM explore every day.

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Other ResearchLIFE articles

Taking up the work of reconciliation

Canadian reconciliation barometer

Centre for Human Rights Research

Celebrating its 10th anniversary

Transforming agriculture

Leveraging technology

Grounded perspective

Artworks connect to the natural world

Saving lives with data

Long-term partners get quick results

Marine science

Marine science in Canada’s third ocean

Julie Brodeur, MA in Kinesiology and Recreation Management

Throughout my own exposure to youth sport, I noticed different behaviours from different parents in the stands. These behaviours piqued my curiosity into why some parents behave in an exemplary way in relation to their children’s sport, while others fulfilled the stereotypical role of the parent who goes berserk at their children’s sport. I wanted to understand why some parents may come to behave in ways that would be detrimental to organized sport.

This led me to begin examining the role of passion in parents of youth athletes, specifically youth hockey players in Canada. I chose this population for a few reasons; my familiarity with the sport and the prevalence of hockey in Canada. My advisor, Dr. Ben Schellenberg studies passion in sports fans and hockey parents could be considered the ultimate sports fans.

Passion, as defined through the work of Robert Vallerand, arises from an activity that a person finds enjoyable or even loves, invests time, effort and energy into, identifies with and values. Vallerand’s work in passion identifies different types of passion. One type—obsessive passion—often involves maladaptive outcomes and has been linked to poor fan behaviour in some studies. It is thought that obsessive passion emerges from unbalanced needs in people’s lives. My research aims to look at if the role of a persons’ basic psychological needs and whether those needs are fulfilled in general, or only through an activity, can be a cause of passion. In other words, if someone feels autonomy, relatedness, and competence in general they may tend to be more harmoniously passionate in being a hockey parent. Alternatively, if someone does not have their basic psychological needs met in general, but only in being a hockey parent, the thought is that this person may be higher in obsessive passion.

I am seeking to learn if parents of youth hockey players experience passion for the activity of being a hockey parent and if they do, do those parents who are higher in obsessive passion tend to show more verbal aggression toward officials?

I am seeking to learn if parents of youth hockey players experience passion for the activity of being a hockey parent and if they do, do those parents who are higher in obsessive passion tend to show more verbal aggression toward officials? The final piece of the puzzle comes from where passion arises. My research asks parents to report their needs, obsessive passion and spectating behaviour to test the possibility of needs, obsessive passion and yelling at referees all being correlated.

I hope to be able to fill that research gap of where passion arises, as well as to gain more insight into parental behaviours in youth sport. This will help us create better sporting environments for players, parents, coaches and officials.

Visit the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management on our website

ResearchLIFE

ResearchLIFE highlights the quest for knowledge that artists, engineers, scholars, scientists and students at UM explore every day.

Learn more about ResearchLIFE

Other ResearchLIFE articles

Taking up the work of reconciliation

Canadian reconciliation barometer

Centre for Human Rights Research

Celebrating its 10th anniversary

Transforming agriculture

Leveraging technology

Grounded perspective

Artworks connect to the natural world

Saving lives with data

Long-term partners get quick results

Marine science

Marine science in Canada’s third ocean

Women with asthma tend to experience more severe symptoms than men. Women are also more likely to be non-responders to steroid treatments for the disease. “That means women are more likely to develop uncontrolled asthma,” says Neeloffer Mookherjee, a UM immunologist whose research focuses on lung inflammation. “Yet these sex-related differences have largely been ignored in drug development research, which has taken a one-size-fits-all approach. If drug-testing experiments are skewed toward males, the treatment can be less effective when applied to females.”

The professor of internal medicine and immunology in the Max Rady College of Medicine says scientists are only beginning to investigate how disease risk, disease progression and response to treatment differ between the sexes in many illnesses.

Professor Neeloffer Mookherjee.

Mookherjee’s expertise in this emerging approach to research has earned her a prestigious, four-year funded position as Canada’s first Sex and Gender Science Chair in Circulatory and Respiratory Health. The chair was awarded in 2020 by the Institute of Gender and Health, part of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

“The entire field of incorporating sex and gender-based analysis into biomedical and health research is very new,” she says. “Canada is becoming a world leader in this field, and this chair will allow my lab to be at the forefront of advancing it. The ultimate goal is personalized medicine that tailors treatment to individual characteristics, including biological sex.”

“The ultimate goal is personalized medicine that tailors treatment to individual characteristics, including biological sex.”

Mookherjee, a UM faculty member since 2008, studies the molecular processes involved in chronic inflammation. In her lab at UM’s Manitoba Centre for Proteomics and Systems Biology, she conducts some of her experiments using mice, and others using human lung cells.

It has long been standard practice, she says, for immunologists to study mice or human cells of only one sex.

“Recently, data has started coming out that the immune response is wired differently in males and females,” she says.“That has been the impetus to take sex differences into account in designing our experiments and analyzing data. The knowledge and the tools to do so have only been available to researchers for about a decade.”

Mookherjee points to a landmark study co-led by scientists from McGill University and Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. Published in 2015, it showed that the long-accepted theory that pain perception relies solely on immune cells called microglia is only true in males. Interfering with the function of microglia blocked the sensation of pain in male mice, but had limited effect in female mice.

“This study revealed that in females, a different kind of immune cells—T cells—are also involved in perceiving pain,” says Mookherjee. “That was a paradigm-shifting result.”

Image of peptides generated from Mookherjee's research.

Such findings have helped turn the tide toward equitable research design. “The major funding agencies are now requiring researchers to examine sex as a variable by using animal models and cell lines of both sexes,” Mookherjee says.

In asthma research, a key challenge is that both chronic lung inflammation and the steroid drugs that control it can weaken the immune system. That makes asthma patients susceptible to infections, including respiratory viruses.

Mookherjee’s current research focuses on innate defence regulator (IDR) peptides, which are synthetic versions of human “defender” molecules. In 2018, her team was the first to publish evidence that IDR peptides are effective against asthma. “These peptides can control both inflammation and infection,” she says.

Her lab is now investigating sex-related differences in IDR peptides’ effects on the immune system. “We’re starting to identify inflammatory proteins in the lungs that differ in male and female mice when they’re exposed to asthma-inducing allergens. In a year or so, if we detect the same differences in lung cells from asthmatic men and women, that will be exciting.”

Mookherjee in the lab.

Mookherjee also studies the inflammatory process in arthritis—another disease that is more prevalent and severe in women. In preparation for including sex as a variable in her arthritis research, she plans to develop female mouse models with various kinds of arthritic joints.

A unique aspect of Mookherjee’s Sex and Gender Science Chair is that it includes dedicated funding for outreach, communication and capacity-building. That is enabling her to promote sex and gender-based analysis through events such as workshops and symposia.

She also belongs to a number of networks and groups, such as the Biology of Breathing Group at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba. “Through these affiliations, I’ll be able to advocate for sex and gender-based analysis and train researchers to integrate it into their own research programs,” she says.

“The major funding agencies are now requiring researchers to examine sex as a variable by using animal models and cell lines of both sexes,”

“We’re starting to identify inflammatory proteins in the lungs that differ in male and female mice when they’re exposed to asthma-inducing allergens. In a year or so, if we detect the same differences in lung cells from asthmatic men and women, that will be exciting.”

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Fostering research excellence

Seeking public transit equity

Building nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Innovating diversity education

The not so sweet truth about food politics

 

Functional materials can be thought of as simple LEGOstructures, where the overall properties are determined by the type of the blocks used in construction. Most of the materials that we encounter in daily life are the equivalent of a cube built with large DUPLO LEGOs —incredibly well ordered with predictable properties. Just like how smaller pieces increase the intricacy of LEGOconstruction, the nanoscale materials that I study contain properties with a complexity not present in bulk materials.

Rachel Nickel is a Vanier scholar in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. She is studying iron oxide nanoparticles to determine how size and shape affects their properties. Her research aims to translate this quantum physics into biomedical applications.

Under the supervision of professor Johan van Lierop, my research is focused on magnetic nanoparticles. Magnetism is fundamentally a quantum mechanical effect and the size of these particles—10,000 of my nanoparticles will fit end-to-end in the width of a single hair—introduces a wealth of new physics. Electronic quantum effects become significant at surfaces, while the interaction between chemical composition and nanoparticle structure changes the material’s properties. As a result, a complete understanding of these systems is elusive because the delicate interplay between interactions within the particles and between particles is not easily disentangled.

Watch our video profile of Rachel Nickel

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To gain new insights into nanomagnetism, I work to build new quantum structures composed mostly of iron and oxygen atoms. Varying the size and shape of these nanoparticles allows me to create different quantum interactions which can then be probed. The fundamental information obtained from these experiments will permit intelligent design of magnetic nano-particle systems for various applications.

“The fundamental information obtained from these experiments will permit intelligent design of magnetic nano-particle systems for various applications.”

In particular, my magnetic nanoparticles are well-suited for biomedical applications. One of the primary reasons for studying iron oxide nanoparticles is that they are non-toxic and have capabilities for both diagnostics and therapeutics.

Sphere, cube and octopod-shaped iron oxide nanoparticles.

For instance, my nanoparticles can be used for new imaging modalities with exceptional contrast and sensitivity that require relatively inexpensive equipment. These magnetic nanoparticles are also capable of converting electromagnetic energy into heat with significant spatial selectivity, giving them great potential for cancer treatments. Via careful control of quantum properties, I aim to combine these diagnostic and therapeutic abilities into a single ‘theranostic’ system, which will make for more efficient treatments.

Using the toolkit of LEGO-like nanostructures that I am building, my research connects complex quantum science to real world applications. Although they are sub-microscopic, magnetic nanoparticles have enormous potential.

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Fostering research excellence

Seeking public transit equity

Experimental equity

Innovating diversity education

The not so sweet truth about food politics

 

The hunt for a bathroom exemplified a problem Robert Mizzi is studying in his academic work. In January 2017, he was giving a campus tour to a guest speaker and, at the same time, trying to find a gender-neutral washroom for the speaker in one of the University of Manitoba’s buildings.

“I guessed the library was progressive enough to have one, and I was right,” says the associate professor, who joined the Faculty of Education in 2013.

Mizzi is a newly named Canada Research Chair (CRC) in queer, community and diversity education, which includes a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant worth $600,000. He has embarked on a five-year research program to determine the effectiveness of anti-homo/transphobia education. One common method is short, standalone 2SLGBTQ+ awareness workshops that organizations hold for a few hours, but the stand-alone workshops aren’t effective at accomplishing significant changes in large organizations. So the question is, which educational methods will really lead to safe and diverse workplaces?

“The theme of the research program is to study educational interventions that go beyond traditional forms of interactions,” says Mizzi.

Consider the bathroom: the lack of a gender-neutral bathroom in a faculty building says something about who is expected to use that building. During one stage of his research, Mizzi will focus on spatial justice, looking at how physical space can disenfranchise people.

“The theme of the research program is to study educational interventions that go beyond traditional forms of interactions.”

“If Muslim student space is away from other religious groups on campus, what message does that send? If 2SLGBTQ+ space is in the basement, what message does that send?” explains Mizzi. He plans to ask students to draw on university campus maps to illustrate the places they find unwelcoming, along with the places they find attractive.

Watch our video profile of Dr. Mizzi

Watch on YouTube

No ivory tower thinker, Mizzi hopes the learnings about spatial injustice shows those who design university spaces how the architecture can be more supportive. “What people within the disability rights movement have shown is that buildings can be redesigned to suit the needs of building users,” says Mizzi.

Before entering academia, Mizzi was a middle-school teacher, worked in community and social development and consulted on international development projects. Ultimately he chose to focus on educators and education policymakers, because better training for educators and policymakers can flow throughout an organization to benefit more students. Internationally, Mizzi has worked on education projects in Kosovo, Catalonia, Northern Ireland and Japan. He’s also a professionally trained actor with stage and television appearances in three countries. So there’s little surprise to hear that while COVID-19 paused his CRC research, he has used the time to give virtual guest lectures, such as at the University of São Paulo in Brazil and the United Nations’ University for Peace in Costa Rica.

Buddy bench photo taken in Hong Kong.

Along with spatial justice and an “artivism” mural on 2SLGBTQ+ history, Mizzi also plans to study the impact of Gender Sexuality Alliances (GSAs, formerly known as Gay-Straight Alliances). The research has a twist, though: while the positive impact of GSAs on schools is known, Mizzi is wondering if GSAs can have a similar impact on adult education in corporations and large organizations like hospitals, libraries, community centres and post-secondary schools.

“I’ve never heard of this for adults. It’s not a common practice,” says Mizzi. The methodology will be to create GSAs in adult environments, then study how the GSAs evolve over time.

Like the rest of his CRC research, this stage will involve both academic research and ways to directly affect the community. Mizzi is used to discussing institutional changes with policymakers directly.

“I have to acknowledge that politicians and leaders may not have the language to understand sexual and gender diversity and it may draw on some history they’re not proud about in their own lives. I try to be sensitive but assertive in describing what needs to happen.” He believes part of the problem stems from a lacuna in Manitoban’s knowledge of 2SLGBTQ+ history, which is rarely taught [if at all] in Manitoba schools.

“I have to acknowledge that politicians and leaders may not have the language to understand sexual and gender diversity and it may draw on some history they’re not proud about in their own lives.”

That mixed approach of the academic and activist worlds carries over into the advisory council assembled to guide his research.

“It’s unusual for a CRC chair to have an advisory council, but it was important for the research to be meaningful to the community,” says Mizzi. Moving beyond the one-off workshop, the new research will position 2SLGBTQ+ people as teachers for leaders.

“It’s very much rooted in participatory engagement and community,” says Mizzi. “If you look at my history, I’ve worked on 2SLGBTQ+ education internationally and been involved locally with communities. I see this research as an extension of what I’ve been doing in the past.”

(L-R) outthereresearch.ca research team members Gustavo Moura, Clea Schmidt, Robert Mizzi.

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Seeking public transit equity

Experimental equity

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Public transportation plays a vital role in society. It makes it possible for people to travel to and from work and school, access essential services like grocery shopping, daycare and medical care, and participate in social and recreational activities. But what happens when that public transportation is unreliable, inaccessible, ineffective, unsafe or too expensive? Who exactly does it affect? And what kind of impact does that have on those individuals and on society as a whole?

Orly Linovski, assistant professor of city planning in the Faculty of Architecture and a registered professional planner.

Those are some of the questions that Orly Linovski has been addressing since arriving at UM eight years ago. Linovski is an assistant professor of city planning in the Faculty of Architecture and a registered professional planner, with a profound interest in social justice and equity issues and the way that those issues keep individuals from fully participating in society.

That interest is reflected in all of her research.

“My research focuses on transportation equity,” Linovski explains. “So it’s thinking about what are the barriers for people in terms of the transportation system, how it limits what sorts of opportunities they’re able to access, and how we can improve that through transportation planning and investments.”

“it’s thinking about what are the barriers for people in terms of the transportation system, how it limits what sorts of opportunities they’re able to access, and how we can improve that through transportation planning and investments.”

That research, she continues, is two dimensional. One side of it focuses on the planning process and how planners and engineers work to understand the needs of equity-seeking groups that have been historically and currently marginalized in terms of access to opportunities. The other area of her research works directly with equity-seeking, community-based organizations and their members to understand their needs and how they can be better integrated in the planning process and in outcomes from transportation investments.

Linovski’s current primary research project is focused on that second dimension. The project, funded by a SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant, is exploring community members’ lived experiences with public transit and equity and seeking to understand how aspects of a person’s identity affect their experiences of discrimination or privilege in the realm of public transit.

“A lot of transportation research focuses on modelling, so trying to understand potential opportunities and potential barriers,” Linovski explains. “But the lived experience research really wants to understand people’s experiences in their day to day lives, things that are not easy to understand through quantitative methods—so things like experiences with policing, with violence, with harassment and with multiple barriers that inform how people have access to opportunities or don’t have that access.”

Linovski and her graduate student team of researchers are gathering that data in collaboration with several well-established community-based organizations, as well as from targeted public surveys that the team designs and distributes to equity-seeking groups representing people of colour, people from low income neighbourhoods and people living with disabilities, among others.

Public transportation barriers are a huge concern and burden for people from these demographics, Linovski emphasizes. People who have mobility options, who own their own vehicles or who have easy access to vehicles, have agency over their time and their ability to get where they need or want to go and take advantage of all sorts of opportunities. But individuals who rely on public transportation do not have that agency and as a result miss out on countless opportunities and experiences.

What do they do when they have a family emergency to respond to? How can they can get to work on time or pick up their children from daycare on time when a bus is running late?

“Equity research is important because there can be strong incentives for the groups in society who benefit from inequity to not see or understand the systems that serve those with privilege at the expense of marginalized groups,” says Aaron Snider, a student in the Master of City Planning program and one of Linovski’s research assistants. “I see research like Dr. Linovski’s as key to highlighting those systems and to understanding where inequity originates.”

Once all of the current project data is collected, Linovski and her team will begin the task of synthesizing and translating the findings for a range of stakeholders, including government, which, ideally, will then use the findings to facilitate best practices in policy and program development.

“All of my research is motivated by having an impact on policy, hopefully in a positive direction,” Linovksi says.

“Transportation inequity can be so severe and negatively impact so many facets of peoples’ lives.”

Transportation inequity, she adds, can be so severe and negatively impact so many facets of peoples’ lives. The good news, however, is that community engagement, combined with equitable planning, programs and policies—and equitable investment—can help to alleviate much of that imbalance.

Combined High-need Indicator

Higher score: ↓ income/education; ↑ unemployment/recent immigration

Maps showing access to built and proposed transit, based on need indicators.

Community responses to the question of: “What measures should be used to make transit investment decisions?”

What communities benefit from investment?

49%

Can people get to the places they want to go?

73%

Did previous investments achieve their goals?

42%

 

Do transportation issues prevent participating in activities?

76%

Do equity seeking groups face more barriers in getting to where they want to go?

62%

 

ResearchLIFE

ResearchLIFE highlights the quest for knowledge that artists, engineers, scholars, scientists and students at UM explore every day.

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Fostering research excellence

Experimental equity

Building nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Innovating diversity education

The not so sweet truth about food politics

 

Research can only be excellent, innovative and impactful when it benefits us all. In the minds of the presidents of the three federal research granting agencies, there is no doubt that equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) foster research excellence.

As such, we developed, under the leadership of the Canada Research Coordinating Committee, the Tri-Agency EDI Action Plan. This plan outlines actions needed to increase fair access to research support and to promote equitable participation in the research system. In addition, the Indigenous strategic plan, Setting new directions to support Indigenous research and research training in Canada, guides our efforts.

We recognize that First Nations, Inuit and Métis are rights-holding as First Peoples of Canada and initiatives to support Indigenous research and research training should be developed through distinctions-based approaches.

It is worth highlighting that the COVID-19 global pandemic and the increased recognition of systemic racism have reinforced the importance of continuing to embed EDI considerations into tri-agency programs, policies and practices.

The granting agencies, together with two other Canadian federal research funders, signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) recognizing that citation statistics as a metric to assess academic impact can over-value publication and devalue other forms of expertise and experience. This, in turn, can marginalize some scholars, especially women, Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), persons with disabilities, members of visible minority/racialized groups and members of 2SLGBTQ+ communities.

As a mathematical scientist, I am drawn to numbers and I cannot stress enough the importance of establishing a good baseline to inform decisions. Disaggregated data helps reveal diversity gaps and track progress against measures of equity, diversity and inclusion. All institutions benefit from collecting and analyzing disaggregated data as a critical tool toward dismantling persistent systemic barriers and improving equitable representation of all communities. Since 2018, the granting agencies have used the self-identification questionnaire to gather data from individuals who are applying for funding and this initiative will be expanded in the coming year to evaluation and governance committee members.

I strongly believe that it will take collective action across the research ecosystem to produce a deeper change and achieve a truly inclusive culture. Many post-secondary institutions across Canada are already taking important steps to increase EDI in their environment.

In this regard, I want to recognize the leadership of the University of Manitoba and its very own Vice-President, Research and International, Dr. Digvir S. Jayas. When assuming the interim position as President of NSERC, he established a special ad hoc committee on EDI. This now permanent standing committee is instrumental in developing inclusive policies for the benefit of the whole natural sciences and engineering research community. During his time at the helm of NSERC, he also supported the development of the tri-council pilot program Dimensions: equity, diversity and inclusion Canada. The Canadian initiative is designed to encourage actions in post-secondary institutions to address barriers faced by underrepresented groups. The University of Manitoba is an affiliated institution of the program and a proud signatory of the Dimensions charter.

The Canadian initiative is designed to encourage actions in post-secondary institutions to address barriers faced by underrepresented groups. The University of Manitoba is an affiliated institution of the program and a proud signatory of the Dimensions charter.

An equitable, diverse and inclusive research ecosystem won’t happen overnight but our individual actions are part of the solution. Whether we are conducting research, studying at a post-secondary institution, developing policies, or administering programs, we all have an important role to play in ensuring that Canada’s research system supports and values participation by all.

Applying WISDOM to women’s equity

Dr. Neeloffer Mookherjee had excellent mentors throughout her training as a scientist in India and British Columbia. But something was missing: not one mentor was a woman.

The immunologist says that although more women are attaining leadership positions now, women continue to face barriers to achievement in scientific careers.

“We need to do a better job of providing the supports, mentorship and resources to allow women to succeed, advance and lead,” she says.

In 2018, Mookherjee founded Women in Science: Development, Outreach and Mentoring (WISDOM), a Manitoba organization supported by the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. The group, which welcomes people of all genders, works to address the under-representation of women in science, particularly in leadership.

Affiliated with the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology, WISDOM aims to increase the number, retention and status of academic women scientists. Recently, it held an online speaker series featuring experts in equity, diversity and inclusion from Canadian universities.
Gender-based discrimination in academia is often nuanced, Mookherjee says, but it still discredits and demoralizes qualified women. It can discourage them from applying for promotion or tenure, or from staying in a leadership position in which they feel isolated and unsupported. “Those nuanced barriers impact the career trajectory,” she says.

Mookherjee, who self-identifies as a woman of colour and continues to chair WISDOM, says UM’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion is having a noticeable impact.

“It is moving in the right direction,” she says. “We all need to work together to provide equal opportunities for everyone.”

ResearchLIFE

ResearchLIFE highlights the quest for knowledge that artists, engineers, scholars, scientists and students at UM explore every day.

Learn more about ResearchLIFE

Other ResearchLIFE articles

Seeking public transit equity

Experimental equity

Building nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Innovating diversity education

The not so sweet truth about food politics