Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies

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Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies

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Open Access
A Brief Examination of the Shifting Economic Policies in the Advanced Economies (particularly in Canada’s) from the 1930’s to the 1970’s.
(2017) Amaya, Sebastian
Open Access
A Summer with the Mohawk Language
(2016) Cook, Jazz
Open Access
The Accessibility of Elections to Canadians with Cognitive Disabilities
(2020-09) Lai, Jennifer; Spotton Visano, Brenda
It is enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that all Canadian citizens are guaranteed the right to vote. This research paper explores whether persons with cognitive disabilities are able to exercise this right based on the accessibility provisions provided for in Canadian electoral law. A mixed methodology approach was used to investigate this topic, where qualitative interviews with persons with cognitive disabilities from countries and regions with similar social and policy contexts to Canada’s were used to identify facilitators and barriers to voting. Canada’s 14 different electoral acts were ranked based on the number of accessibility provisions they possessed that could facilitate voting. Ontario was identified as the jurisdiction with the most provisions that could facilitate voting in persons with cognitive disabilities. Trends in the secondary sourced data also revealed that a lack of electoral knowledge and a lack of social support were the most significant barriers to voting for persons with cognitive disabilities. A supportive social network was unanimously identified in the secondary data as a significant facilitator to voting. In fact, it was identified in the secondary data sources that persons with cognitive disabilities that did not have a supportive social network were unable to use the existing accessibility provisions in their region. This finding represents the limitations of Canada’s current accessibility provisions in their ability to facilitate voting for persons with cognitive disabilities. None of Canada’s provisions mandate that social service workers or election officials ensure that persons with cognitive disabilities receive the support they need to understand the electoral process prior to election day. This research paper makes the recommendation that such policy provisions are implemented in Canadian electoral law in order to increase the accessibility of elections to Canadians with cognitive disabilities.
Open Access
The Advocate Self of(f) Beaten Paths: Travelling Colonial Roads in Neoliberal Times
(2020-04) Koziorz, Dorothy
Social work often conceptualizes advocacy as synonymous with social justice and critical praxis (Smith, 2011), which seemingly affirms the heart of the social work profession. Though many claim an advocacy role or agree that advocacy is essential to social works cause, little is known about how the advocate self is constructed, understood, and practiced. 6 self-defined, Ontario-based child and youth advocates were interviewed in this study to explore how they engage in their own self-making processes; specifically advocates for children and youth who are involved in the child welfare system. This research is informed by post-structural, anti-colonial, anti-racist, and other critical theories and worldviews. It deploys a narrative approach and an analytic framework of Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore how child and youth advocates are shaped by, and in turn, shape dominant relations of power that work against, or in solidarity with children and young people towards social justice. Findings reveal that the roads travelled by child and youth advocates in their self-making processes are complex and ever-changing. The narratives of child and youth advocates reveal that they are both co-producers and disrupters of dominant discourses and power-knowledge systems. Additionally, it is argued that the advocate self is not a bounded self, but that it is “discursively mediated and politically situated” (Macias, 2012 p. 10). Finally, the research concludes with an argument for the necessity to historicize social justice imperatives in order to gain insight to the current tensions experienced by social justice advocates and further, opportunities for resistance.
Open Access
Alienation Redux: Marxian Perspectives
(Alienation Redux: Marxian Perspectives | SpringerLink, 2021-05) Musto, Marcello
Alienation was one of the most important and widely debated themes of the twentieth century and Marx’s reflections on this concept defined significant moments in its dissemination. Most of the authors who initially wrote on alienation considered it a universal aspect of human existence. Additionally, after World War II the popularity of the concept created a profound terminological ambiguity. The diffusion of Marx’s oeuvre paved the way for a conception of alienation geared to the overcoming of this phenomenon in practice—to the political action of social movements, parties and trade unions to change the working and living conditions of the working class. Marx’s writings on alienation provided not only a coherent theoretical basis for new studies of this concept, but above all an anti-capitalist ideological platform for the labour movement. Alienation left the books of philosophers took to the streets and became a critique of bourgeois society.
Open Access
An Examination of How Dominant Notions of Normalcy Inform the Experiences of Non- White Subjects Living with Chronic Illness
(2018) Iyer, Minakshi
The subject of normalcy within critical disability studies explores the dichotomy of normal and abnormal and how this informs the way disability is discussed within society. Using a post-structural and critical approach, this research has examined the intersections between race and disability within the narratives of non-white subjects living with chronic illness. What this research reflects is a global conversation regarding the ways in which capitalism, whiteness and ability impart limitations upon participants in this study, and how community activism and friendship serve as a form of empowerment and solace while navigating these structures of dominance.
Open Access
Analyzing Costco’s supply chain responsiveness through lean and agile strategies
(2022-09-16) Persaud, Teesha; Solis, Adriano O.
Supply chain responsiveness contributes to efficient supply chain performance. Supply chain responsiveness refers to effectively and efficiently meeting customer’s needs in a timely manner. This paper considers the supply chain strategies and practices that lead to the supply chain responsiveness of Costco when compared to its major competitors, Wal-Mart and Loblaws. The evaluation and comparison of key financial performance measures as well as various statistical analyses identify the supply chain strategies that benefit Costco and its competitors. The paper presents a contribution to existing supply chain literature through the in-depth analysis conducted of different supply chain performance measures for three major retailers in Canada - Costco, Wal-Mart and Loblaws. This analysis evaluates a 23-year period from 1999 to 2021. The analysis also contributes to the existing literature on the use of supply chain strategies, such as leanness and agility in the retail industry, Costco’s practices of just-in-time (JIT) inventory management and cross-docking as well as specific characteristics of Costco’s supply chain practices. The findings of the analysis lead to the validation of assertions and propositions of earlier researchers. These include the importance of employing complementary supply chain practices together as well as a focus on aligning supply chain strategies with the company’s corporate strategy. These understandings contribute to the achievement of supply chain responsiveness by encouraging cohesion and balance amongst supply chain strategies.
Open Access
Angola’s Challenges
(2018) Pattni, Noorin
Open Access
Ascensão e queda do pacto populista em Cuba, 1934-1959
(Tempo, 2012-07) McGillivray, Gillian
O regime que pôs fim aos “100 dias de reforma” em Cuba é rotulado com frequência como “contrarrevolução” quando, na verdade, a expressão mais apropriada seria a de “populismo autoritário”. O novo regime não reverteu a Revolução de 1933; muito pelo contrário, suas lideranças valeram-se da violência combinada com reformas revolucionárias como forma de incorporar, de maneira compulsória, um número cada vez maior de pessoas em um novo e ampliado sistema estatal de liderança. Fulgencio Batista recebeu o apoio de parte da classe trabalhadora ao longo do período democrático que vigorou durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, mas o anticomunismo da Guerra Fria desestabilizou seu regime, esvaziando o populismo cubano de grande parte da sua substância.
Open Access
Asylum Law in North America
(Springer, 2022-02-16) Soennecken, Dagmar
Canada and the United States are both international leaders in the admission of refugees. The chapter first discusses and compares the domestic asylum determination system in Canada with that of the United States, followed by an overview of their respective refugee resettlement programs overseas, which largely take place outside of the rule of law. The Canadian section includes an overview of the 2002 Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), which remains in effect but has twice been challenged on constitutional grounds thus far. The chapter makes reference to the tension between domestic constitutional norms, the rights of refugees in international law (Hathaway, The rights of refugees under international Law, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021), and the growing preference of both Canada and the United States to treat refugees as “migrant[s] who the government may have reason to select” (Galloway Rights and the re-identified refugee: An analysis of recent shifts in Canadian law. In Kneebone S, Stevens D, Baldassar L (eds) Refugee protection and the role of Law: conflicting identities. Routledge, London and New York, 2014, 38) by securitizing asylum and by deterritorializing their borders throughout. It shows that this preference is at least in part anchored in a much older tradition of admitting refugees via discretionary humanitarian admission schemes, shielded from judicial oversight.
Open Access
Barriers and paths to success: Latin American MBAs' views of employment in Canada
(Emerald, 2010) Turchick-Hakak, Luciana; Holzinger, Ingo; Zikic, Jelena
Purpose - This paper aims to examine perceived barriers and paths to success for Latin American immigrant professionals in the Canadian job market Design/methodology/approach - Findings are based on 20 semi-structured interviews with Latin American graduates of Canadian MBA programs. Interviews were analyzed for emergent categories and common themes. Findings - Despite their strong educational backgrounds, participants perceived several challenges to their success in the Canadian workplace, specifically, language barriers, lack of networks, cultural differences and discrimination. They also identified factors that influenced their professional success in Canada, such as homophilious networks and their Latin American background Research limitations/implications - By investigating stories of Latin American immigrant professionals, the study explores subjective views of immigration experiences and discrimination in this unique and rarely examined group. A larger sample will increase the confidence of the study's findings and future studies should examine dynamics of these issues over time. Originalitylvalue - This paper presents insight onto the labor market experiences and coping mechanisms of the currently understudied group of Latin American immigrant professionals in Canada. The study's qualitative approach enabled the examination of challenges experienced by immigrant professionals beyond those typically studied in this literature (e.g. devaluation of foreign credentials) and led to the finding that being Latin American can act both as a disadvantage in the form of discrimination and as an advantage as it differentiates immigrant professionals from other job seekers.
Open Access
Batoche National Historic Site
(2017) Gibbs, Robert
Open Access
Becoming a leader: the challenge of modesty for women
(Emerald, 2010) Budworth, Marie-Helene; Mann, Sara L.
Purpose - While the number of women in managerial positions has been increasing, the gender composition of top management teams is skewed. There are barriers and obstacles in place that limit the movement of women into leadership roles. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between modesty and access to leadership. Specifically, tendencies toward modesty and lack of self-promotion are hypothesized to perpetuate the lack of female involvement in top management positions. Design/methodology/approach - The literature on modesty and self-promotion is reviewed. The findings are discussed in terms of the persistent challenges faced by women with regard to their ability to enter senior levels of management. Findings - The overall message of the paper is that behaviours that are successful for males in the workplace are not successful for females. The good news is that women do not need to adopt male ways of being in order to succeed. A limitation is that the paper is largely "uni-cultural", as the research referenced is primarily that undertaken in a North American context. Self-promotion and modesty may be conceptualized differently in other contexts. Originality/value - The paper is one of the first to focus on modesty, an important gendered individual difference, to explain persistent workplace inequalities.
Open Access
Bring Me the Wind
(2017) Morris, Danielle
Open Access
Bursting the Ottawa bubble: Government Dispersal & Localization in the Context of a Diversity Strategy
(2022-07) Holmes Weier, Jennifer
The Canadian Public Service envisions a future where they are an inclusive institution where all can belong, powered by a diverse workforce that is representative and reflective of Canada. I was curious about how this commitment to reflect and represent Canada could be achieved when much of the policy workforce is assigned to the National Capital Region (HR Datahub, 2021). Could greater government dispersal and localization foster a more diverse policy workforce? To explore this question, a research project was designed that would a) review and synthesize the relevant literature, b) conduct background research on relevant legislation, policy, and data, and c) conduct a micro case study of the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and lived experiences of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) policy leaders on both diversity and the role of geography in diversity. The review of the evidence suggests that greater dispersal of federal policy jobs to communities across Canada could foster a more representative workforce. This finding comes with a caution that equity-conscious hiring and workplace locational flexibility alone does not create an inclusive work environment. Leaders must also be ready to centre diversity and inclusion in their approach to leadership and have the personal and professional tools to do so. Interviews with ESDC leaders, as a window into the leadership of Canada’s public service, reveals more support and intentionality is needed in this regard. To remove geographic restrictions for diversity purposes with a meaningful inclusion strategy behind it could act as a catalyst for transformation toward the diversity and inclusion vision.
Open Access
Business Plan for a Refugee Coaching Network
(2017) Okyat, Okello Mark
Open Access
Campus Friction: A Short Ethnographic Engagement with Protest as Performance in York University’s Vari Hall
(2011-01-26T23:55:32Z) Ferguson, Robert
This paper explores the connection between campus spaces and protests by student-based groups at York University during the 2008-2009 academic session. Guided by the questions: What are the symbolic connections between campus spaces and the protests that occur in these spaces? Are campus protests effective in promoting awareness and creating real change?, I argue that protests that occur on York’s campus are complex social interactions in which the allocation and use of space speaks volumes about York University’s campus’ social stratification, its institutional values, and fosters community formation through participation in activism. Based on interviews conducted with students, protest conceptualized as extracurricular educational experiences, which foster a sense of community and enable students to put their education into practice in meaningful ways. Conversely, protests make students aware of the ways in which York’s campus is both a public institution and a private entity under increasing pressure of corporatization. Viewing campus spaces as either public or private entitled students to different, and often contradicting, rights and privileges regarding their use of space. Through their metaphors of campus space and descriptions of protest experiences, students are also acutely aware of disconnects between their political movements and institutional support by the University’s administration. In this way, campus protests are seen as effective in promoting awareness but lacking the ability to create any real and lasting change, ultimately resulting in the illusion of agency and increased governmentality when the University’s administration stepped in.
Open Access
Canada's bold experiment with pay equity
(Emerald, 2010) Singh, Parbudyal; Peng, Ping
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution, implementation and effectiveness of the Pay Equity Act in Ontario, Canada. Given that this Act is considered by many as the world's most progressive equal pay for work of equal value legislation, there are important implications for policy globally. Design/methodology/approach - Through a review of relevant documents and the literature, the paper examines the need for the Pay Equity Act in Ontario, its origins, and with two decades of experience, analyze its effectiveness. A case study is also used to assess related procedures and effects of the law. Findings - In spite of its limitations and the wide pay gap that still exists between men and women, many female workers have benefited from Ontario's progressive Pay Equity Act. In targeting the discriminatory aspect of women's work evaluations, the Act has resulted in pay increases for thousands of women, especially in the public sector. Practical implications - There are many practical and social implications for jurisdictions across the globe, as they try to grapple with gender pay equities. Policy makers can learn from the successes and challenges experienced in Ontario. Pay equity legislation will unlikely achieve any significant progress in reducing the wage gap if it relies on workers to complain about the inequity in their pay. A proactive pay equity law, such as that in Ontario, will force employers to make more focused efforts to deal with gender pay discrimination. Ontario's bold "experiment" with pay equity holds valuable lessons for jurisdictions globally. Originality/value - While there has been some research on the Ontario Pay Equity Act, there is a paucity of scholarly work that examines the details of the pay system that the Act has spawned. There is also little work in assessing the effectiveness of the legislation.
Open Access
Canadian Comparative Literature in Bits: The Impact of Open Access and Electronic Publication Formats
(Lexington, 2020) Reisenleitner, Markus
Open Access
Canadian Current Events Project – The Keystone XL Pipeline
(2013) Pinozzotto, Frank
This report examines how the Keystone XL pipeline is being “framed” by its proponents and criticized by its detractors. The essay was very strong in many respects. In particular, the jury appreciated its clear demonstration of his learning process: the author does not draw his conclusions from established sources but rather thinks it through as he does the research, comparing arguments and coming to his own conclusions about the environmental efficacy of the pipeline. We recommend that he be publicly noted as runner-up for the prize.