With more Toronto families living in towering condos, the Toronto District School Board is planning to build schools to serve them. The board is taking the province up on its call for "podium" schools, which are integrated into a development project and situated at the base, or podium, of a residential building, for example. 

According to the Ford government, other "innovative" ways to build schools would include having schools co-located with child-care centres, municipal buildings and commercial developments. For the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), a "podium" school is on its list of submissions for the latest round of capital priorities, according to Ryan Glenn, CEO of the Toronto Lands Corporation (TLC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the board. 

Sue Winton, a professor with �첥��Ƶ's education faculty, said she thinks there are things school boards and the province should pay attention to when locating schools within buildings that aren't publicly owned. This includes who makes the decisions about how and when the building is used, and under what terms.

"So how is that space made available to the community after school?" Winton said, adding that she would encourage schools to be accessible to community groups at affordable rates.

Winton said another question is who is responsible for maintenance if a school is located within a private residential building, for example.

"Who's in charge? Who's making the decisions, on whose timeline? Are those contractors that are coming into the space — have they met the sort of safety requirements that anybody working in a school would have to follow?" she said.

"So it's not to say it could never work, but just (to) suggest that these are very practical differences," Winton said. "If it's a business, they have a profit goal ... but a public organization has different priorities. Their priorities need to be accessibility, inclusion."

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Edwards, an associate professor in California Polytechnic State University’s physics department, is on a Zoom call with CBC while sitting in a friend’s brightly lit shed near her home in Berkeley, Calif. 

Mulling the question, she turns her head to the right, facing white wood-panelled walls. She’s thinking hard.

“Ummm,” she says, looking off into the distance. “There are definitely a few new grad students that I know of.”

She pauses and smiles. “I know some physicists. And some education astronomy folks.”

It’s clear she’s struggling. 

“Yeah, there’s very few,” Edwards finally says. “I don’t know if there’s any other folks who are currently working not as students [but] as astronomers who are Canadian. I don’t know. I would imagine I would know them.”

Canada has some of the world’s most talented astronomers, astrophysicists and physicists. There’s , whose work on pulsars and neutron stars earned her the Gerhard Herzberg Canada gold medal for science and engineering; , a world-renowned astronomer and planetary scientist at MIT who earned a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2013 and is a leader in exoplanet research; and .

One thing they have in common? They’re all white.

Black astronomers are few and far between in North America, but especially in Canada. Inside the community, members share stories of discrimination, micro-aggressions and feelings of isolation, which can ultimately dissuade others from pursuing careers in the sciences.

High school challenges

Hewitt is active in bringing STEM to Black youth. He co-founded , a STEM outreach program in Nova Scotia for Black students. His programs include the , a summer camp at Dalhousie. 

Why are there so few Black Canadian scientists in general, but in particular, those who seek out a career in astronomical science? 

One of the problems may be found in the education system.

Take the province of Ontario, for example. Until recently, high schools there had a “streaming” program, which directed students into different post-secondary routes. “Academic” courses were more challenging and required for university; “applied” courses prepared students for college and trades; and “essentials” provided support for students in meeting the requirements to graduate.

In 2017, , a professor in the faculty of education at �첥��Ƶ in Toronto, found that only 53 per cent of Black students in the Toronto District School Board were put in academic programs, compared to 81 per cent of white students and 80 per cent of other racialized students. 

Conversely, 39 per cent of Black students were enrolled in applied programs, compared to 16 per cent of white students and 18 per cent of other racialized students.

“What we found in that study was many of the [Black] parents were talking about how their children were streamed into vocational or essential or low-level courses,” James said. Some parents would try to “intervene,” he said, but their concerns fell on deaf ears.

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It is now seventeen years since the Nubian Book Club (NBC) has been influencing: young learners, early readers and veteran learners through the power of literature. The launch of its Summer 2024 series was under the theme “Solidarity and the Diaspora: Towards Liberation.” Since it started, the NBC has been a vital platform and valuable space where students, parents, educators and community members come together to “Inspire and be inspired” through the power of literature. It is described as an “Intergenerational community initiative that encourages minority youths, their families and community leaders to engage in rich dialogue about literature to support the advancement of the participating youth.”

Session 1 of the Nubian Book Club 2024 that was held on Thursday, July 4th, 2024 featured a discussion on the theme "Solidarity for Collective Liberation" by keynote speakers Dr. Vidya Shah (an Associate Professor at Faculty of Education at �첥��Ƶ) and Dr. Camille Logan (an Associate Director, School, Curriculum and Instruction, Student and Community Engagement at Peel District School Board). The poem discussed during the session was “Wanna be an ally?”

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Three York Region hospitals will be adding pronouns into their electronic health records in an effort to improve care for LGBTQ2S+ people.

Southlake Regional Health Care, Oak Valley Health (formerly Markham Stouffville Hospital) and Stevenson Memorial have announced starting Aug. 10, patients will be asked, “would you like to share your pronouns?” at patient registration.

“” the hospitals said in a joint statement released Aug. 11.

Tristan Coolman, president of Pflag York Region, calls it an “incredibly important” move, one that could provide assurance to marginalized groups they will be treated with dignity, as individuals, rather than assumptions based on appearance.

“A lot of people in the queer community avoid engaging with the health-care system for fear of being treated poorly or based on past experiences,” he said.

All three hospital presidents called it a step in the right direction and a sign of respect.

Jen Gilbert, a professor with �첥��Ƶ’s faculty of education, says pronouns can be powerful and can play a role in fostering a .

“Maybe it’s just words, maybe it’s one small thing, but it’s the acknowledgement that the world is a lot different from what we imagined it to be.”

Read the full story in .

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