Category: World

SALT LAKE CITY — Bullying seems to be pretty commonplace on Instagram, according to The Atlantic’s Taylor Lorenz.

Harassment on Instagram has been described as “uniquely cruel.” Experts say Instagram offers no escape from the bullying plaguing Americans teens.

Three important highlights:

“Teenagers have always been cruel to one another. But Instagram provides a uniquely powerful set of tools to do so. The velocity and size of the distribution mechanism allow rude comments or harassing images to go viral within hours. Like Twitter, Instagram makes it easy to set up new, anonymous profiles, which can be used specifically for trolling. Most importantly, many interactions on the app are hidden from the watchful eyes of parents and teachers, many of whom don’t understand the platform’s intricacies.”
“Instagram is many teens’ entire social infrastructure; at its most destructive, bullying someone on there is the digital equivalent of taping mean flyers all over someone’s school, and her home, and her friends’ homes.”
“Because bullying on your main feed is seen by many as aggressive and uncool, many teens create hate pages: separate Instagram accounts, purpose-built and solely dedicated to trashing one person, created by teens alone or in a group. They’ll post bad photos of their target, expose her secrets, post screenshots of texts from people saying mean things about her, and any other terrible stuff they can find.”

from The Atlantic. (Warning: The article contains mild language)

…read more

Source:: Deseret News – U.S. & World News

The new premier of Quebec has promised to reduce immigration to his province by 20 per cent, require newcomers to learn French in three years and restrict some public servants from wearing religious symbols.

Premier-designate Francois Legault won a majority on Oct. 1 in large part because he professed to be committed to better “integrating” newcomers into the francophone province. But so far Legault has not hinted at ending Quebec’s divisive immigrant-investor program, one of the world’s biggest wealth migration schemes.

The Quebec Immigrant Investor Program — which attracts nine out of 10 of its millionaire applicants from Asia, mostly China — does the opposite of integrating immigrants into a distinct culture. Only one in 10 of the well-to-do migrants who take advantage of Quebec’s investor program choose to live in that province.

Most of the roughly 5,000 migrants a year who exploit Quebec’s buy-a-passport program immediately move to Metro Vancouver and Toronto, where their foreign-sourced dollars pump up the cities’ already high-priced real estate. The decades-old Quebec Immigrant Investor Program is a cynical scheme that doesn’t do what it claims.

And it’s made possible because Quebec is the only Canadian province allowed to set its own immigration policies. (The country’s other premiers in 2016 asked Ottawa for the right to also establish their own immigration rules, but so far their plea has gone nowhere. That could be unfortunate.)

Everyone who signs up for Quebec’s investor program has to hand over an $800,000 interest-free, five-year loan to the government and sign a document citing their firm intention to make their home in Quebec. But only 10 per cent of the 58,000 people who used the program, and remain in Canada, live in the province.

Half of Quebec’s investor immigrants who remain in Canada (many just return to their homeland, with …read more

Source:: Vancouver Sun

From the avocado boom to the birth of the cronut, we’ve seen a lot of food trends come and go in recent years. Some good, some weird, some downright outrageous. One everyday staple that’s bucked the trend is the always-in-style Canadian egg. In fact, over the past decade in Canada, egg sales have seen a steady uptick. It’s safe to say this popular and nutritious ingredient isn’t going anywhere. And that’s a good thing, because neither is our penchant for all-day breakfast, thank you very much.

When it comes to cracking down and understanding the country’s ever evolving love of eggs, Tim Lambert, Chief Executive Officer at Egg Farmers of Canada, says it’s simple: High-quality and local product are paramount to Canadians. In other words, we’ve got plenty of pride when it comes to a good egg, and rightfully so.

It Comes Down To Freshness

There’s not doubt that eggs are loved first and foremost for their nutritional value. Protein-rich ingredients are essential in a balanced diet, and Canadians know they don’t have to compromise on high-quality product at home. “In Canada, eggs are produced in every province and territory,” says Lambert, “making it possible for us to have access to local eggs all year around, from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, and even the Northwest Territories. Across the country, Canadians are generally getting regional product.” Furthermore, this level of extraordinary access lends itself to an affordability that’s equally easy to get behind.

A Commitment To Community

One thing that resonates strongly with a Canadian sensibility, is the idea that buying local means you’re supporting the community in which you live, says Lambert. “You support the business owners, your friends and neighbours and I think for Canadians knowing where their food comes from is meaningful.” Simply put, it’s a transaction of trust …read more

Source:: The Huffington Post – Canada

B.C. public health experts say they now have evidence to refute concerns of people who worried the HPV vaccine would lead to promiscuity among youth.

When the vaccine against the cancer-causing, sexually transmitted human papillomavirus became publicly funded for Grade 6 and Grade 9 girls in 2008, some religious leaders and parents said it was akin to condoning sexual activity and would lead youth to have sex earlier, with more partners and without protection. Since 2011, it is freely available only to girls in Grade 6.

But a B.C. study, published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that after the vaccine was introduced, girls were less likely to have intercourse before the age of 14, less likely to drink alcohol and less likely to take drugs. Girls in grades 7 to 12 also used contraception and condoms more often, and reported fewer pregnancies.

The lead author, Dr. Gina Ogilvie of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, credits improved sex education and awareness for the changes.

Ogilvie and her co-authors used B.C.’s Adolescent Health Survey, done every five years, to detect changes in sexual behaviours of girls before and after HPV vaccinations were introduced into schools. Data from the 2003, 2008 and 2013 surveys were analyzed. The study is based on responses from about 300,000 girls who identified as heterosexual and completed the anonymous questionnaire designed to spot trends in the physical and emotional health of students.

“It’s not that kids are becoming more conservative,” Ogilvie said of the findings. “It’s that they are more informed about the consequences of their decisions and they have more autonomy to make choices about their bodies.

“Parents told us in surveys that they were concerned their children would make poor sexual health choices if they were vaccinated against HPV, but children know that this is …read more

Source:: Vancouver Sun