Flushed Intelligence- Detecting outbreaks using wastewater-based epidemiology 

• Stephen Brown, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Studies
• Sarah Jane Payne, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Queen’s University
• Geoffrey Hall, Associate Director Education and Outreach, Beaty Water Research Centre, Adjunct Professor, Department of Civil Engineering & School of Environmental Studies, Queen's University 

Since the COVID19 was identified in late 2019, it has spread worldwide, infecting over 96 million individuals and resulting in over 2 million deaths, with numbers continuing to grow. Although the respiratory route is the primary transmission pathway of concern, it has been detected in stool of infected individuals as well as in individuals where the illness has resolved, and the virus is no longer detectable in respiratory specimens. Accordingly, feces of infected patients may serve as a source of contamination or infection as well as a potential mechanism for community surveillance, including for asymptomatic carriers. Environmental surveillance in municipal sewage could act as an early warning system of outbreaks as well as identify high-risk communities providing vital monitoring and predictive tools for early intervention in future waves of the outbreak. 

FREE EVENT but registration is required.

Critical Events and Ethnocultural Minorities’ Sense of Belonging: Exploring the Impact of the Charter of Quebec Values and Bill 21

Friday, March 19, 2021  12:00 PM

Speakers:
Luc Turgeon, Associate Professor, Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa
Antoine Bilodeau, Professor, Political Science, Concordia University

Over the past decade, a growing body of literature has explored the impact of what has been referred to as “external”, “critical” or “threatening” events on attitudes toward immigrants and ethnocultural minorities.  Relying on the availability of longitudinal data, these scholars have assessed the effect of events such as terrorist attacks, the European “migrant crisis” or the adoption of different public policies.  However, so far, few studies have explored the impact of critical events that might be perceived as targeting immigrants or ethnocultural minorities on their sense of belonging. In this paper, we explore whether debates around the Charter of Quebec of values (2013-14) and Bill 21 (2019) had a negative impact on minorities’ sense of belonging to Quebec. Moreover, we explore the impact of such events on the sense of belonging to Canada, as well as the mechanisms by which these events contributed (or not) to a changing sense of belonging. The study draws on three surveys of visible minority Quebecers that were conducted in 2012, 2014 and 2019. 

FREE EVENT but registration is required.