Canada

Research finds that major-league arenas and stadiums in Canada and the U.S. are increasingly located downtown, rising from 51 per cent in 1997 to 61 per cent now. Team owners are pairing venues with real estate projects, which can revitalize cores but also displace social housing and limit who can access downtown life, as in Edmonton's ICE District.

— via The Conversation — Canada, Rylan Graham, Associate Professor, School of Planning and Sustainability, University of Northern British Columbia

With 2,309 of 5,587 polls counted, about 76 per cent of Albertans had voted to stay in Canada rather than start the process toward a second, binding separation referendum. Roughly 56 per cent were backing the immigration-limiting questions, in a vote the UCP drove at an estimated cost of $130 million.

— via The Tyee, Leah Hennig

An art therapist argues schools and families don't need a crisis to justify making art, just room for it. The case against waiting: creative habits like doodling, knitting or collage build resources before kids struggle, not after.

— via The Conversation — Canada, Heather McLaughlin, Senior Lecturer: Creative Arts Therapies Department, DIrector: Concordia Arts in Health Centre, Concordia University

Promises to scrap DRIPA have become campaign fodder in B.C., even as polls show voters care most about affordability and health care. A court ruling made the law's obligations legally enforceable, forcing Eby's about-face, but claims it hands First Nations veto power or threatens private property don't hold up.

— via The Narwhal, Shannon Waters

Manitoba just bought a former campground sitting atop at least 56 unmarked graves of Indigenous children, ending a nearly decade-long standoff with its owner. Sioux Valley Dakota Nation will now lead a two-year, ground-penetrating investigation to find the cemetery's true boundaries.

— via The Narwhal, Connor McDowell and Morgan Modjeski

Seattle City Light is reversing a century-old stance and spending nearly US$1 billion over 24 years to bring salmon back above its dams on the Skagit River. The utility once insisted the fish never swam that far: historical records and Indigenous knowledge say otherwise.

— via The Narwhal, David Moskowitz

A 1927 law let Ottawa block Indigenous land claims before they reached court, and archival records show officials used it to spy on leaders, warn chiefs away from them and quietly kill legal fundraising, no charges required.

— via The Conversation — Canada, Amy Swiffen, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University

"Toxic friend" culture tells you to cut people off. Research on friendship suggests the real question is messier: what do you actually expect from the relationship, and is this a pattern or just one bad night?

— via The Conversation — Canada, Gio Dolcecore, Assistant Professor, Social Work, Mount Royal University

Three TV shows are taking on hockey's toxic culture: but the sport's recent moves suggest little has actually changed. As players return to the ice, teams are signing controversial figures and canceling Pride events while a new generation of fans fights back online.

— via The Conversation — Canada, Clementine Oberst, Sessional instrucutor in Communication Studies, McMaster University

OpenAI claims a proposed fix for the Navier-Stokes equation, one of just seven Millennium Prize Problems worth $1 million each. A mathematician argues the bigger story is what that prize culture buries: modern math's real action has moved to open-ended research with no trophy at all.

— via The Conversation — Canada, Jason Bramburger, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Concordia University

He lost his mother to apprehension by Indian agents, survived childhood sexual abuse, and buried two children after an accident. An excerpt from a new book on Indigenous helping wisdom explains how storyteller Isaac Murdoch turned that grief into a teaching on acceptance he calls daapnaan.

— via The Conversation — Canada, Louis Busch, Psychotherapist, Doctoral Candidate (UofT OISE), Bear Clan Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation., University of Toronto