National – Page 17

A history of Jewish Montreal

Mordecai Richler’s typewriter is among the many items on display in the exhibit Shalom Montreal, which is at Montreal’s McCord Museum until Nov. 11. (photo by Arthur Wolak)

Shalom Montreal: Stories and Contributions of the Jewish Community is at Montreal’s McCord Museum, across from McGill University, until Nov. 11.

The exhibition showcases how Montreal’s diverse Jewish communities have participated in the city’s growth and development, including the remarkable Jewish achievements in various sectors, from arts and culture, health and science, legal and community groups, and business and real estate. It does an excellent job telling the story – through videos, photos, audio recordings, as well as numerous visual displays – of how the Jewish community grew and benefited not only Jews but also continues benefiting all Montrealers.

Montreal now boasts a Jewish population of 90,000. Jewish immigrants began settling there as far back as the 18th century. Between 1904 and 1914, Montreal saw the largest wave of Jewish immigration, with many Jews arriving to the city from Eastern Europe fleeing from antisemitism and violent pogroms. Yiddish culture flourished. More Jews settled in Montreal after the First World War, but far fewer due to Canada’s restrictive policy against Jewish immigrants. Then, after the Second World War, and with new policies in place, several thousand Holocaust survivors immigrated to Montreal, making Yiddish the third most commonly spoken language in the city after French and English.

At the same time, Sephardi Jews from Arab-Muslim countries, also fleeing persecution, arrived in Montreal, including some 10,000 Moroccan Jews who spoke French. This helped them find their place in Quebec, as they set up new institutions featuring their own cultural practices, which differed from those of the Ashkenazim, who had dominated for decades.

Jews of Montreal faced antisemitic policies in the predominantly Catholic and Protestant population, which prohibited Jews from attending Catholic schools, placed barriers for Jews in Protestant schools and even saw a Jewish quota placed in various faculties of McGill University between the 1930s and 1950s. Nonetheless, Jewish contributions to the larger community are recognized today for their positive impact on society in general.

These contributions are highlighted in the exhibition. Jewish architects – Max Kalman, Max Wolfe Roth, David Fred Lebensold and Moshe Safdie, among others – and artists became prominent through their design of important city buildings. Jewish philanthropists, such as the Azrielis, Bronfmans, Cummingses, Hornsteins, Pollacks, Segals and Steinbergs, paid for well-known Montreal educational, cultural, medical and other buildings benefiting all Montrealers. Jewish lawyers, such as Alan B. Gold, Anne-France Goldwater and Irwin Cotler, have promoted social equity, evident in many controversial cases. In 1919, the Canadian Jewish Congress was founded in Montreal – in 2009, the Quebec wing branched off as the Quebec Jewish Congress – providing support to human rights groups.

Jewish contributions to healthcare are particularly noteworthy, with research that has gone beyond the confines of Montreal to benefit the international community. Within the city, Jewish doctors, wanting to counter systemic Catholic and Protestant antisemitic policies, established the Jewish General Hospital in the 1930s. Considered one of the great hospitals in Quebec, it had Canada’s first non-discrimination policy, accepting patients and employees from all communities, and it still thrives today.

Montreal’s clothing industry flourished due to the influence of Jewish immigrants. In the 1930s, the industry employed 35% of Montreal Jewish workers, who were known for their garment skills. Later on, clothing companies founded in Montreal by Jewish families include Reitmans, Le Château, Canadelle, Peerless, Aldo, and clothing brands like Joseph Ribkoff and Parachute.

Shalom Montreal is well worth a visit. It uses entertaining and informative multimedia, along with many visual artifacts, to prove there is far more to Jewish Montreal than its legendary bagels and smoked meat.

Arthur Wolak, PhD, is a business consultant, writer and member of the board of governors of Gratz College. His most recent books are The Development of Managerial Culture (Palgrave Macmillan) and Religion and Contemporary Management (Anthem Press), available in hardcover and ebook formats from all online retailers. He lives with his wife and three children in Vancouver.

New way to see apartments

Jordan Billinkoff, left, and Josh Glow started the company Gryd, winner of the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations’ New Product or Service of the Year Award. (photo from Gryd)

The Toronto-based start-up Gryd is reinventing the look and feel of finding a place to rent.

Created by Winnipeg Jewish community members Jordan Billinkoff and Josh Glow – who started their careers as b’nai mitzvah photographers/videographers – Gryd provides property management companies with a virtual reality (VR) video of the place they want to rent out.

The idea is sometimes a hard sell to management companies, Billinkoff told the Independent, but renters are lining up to use it. The Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations has recognized Gryd as the best new product on the market.

“I’ve always been very interested in technology and digital media,” said Billinkoff. “And, when I was younger, I was making a lot of videos for fun, and people started saying I could make money shooting videos. So, I started shooting bar mitzvah videos.”

At 24, he started doing more commercial work, mainly in real estate, which led him to start a company called Property Reel, which produced photos and videos for real estate properties.

“And then,” he said, “I realized there are a lot more opportunities for new technologies and enhancing the user experience … the way people search for properties online. So, I decided to change the name to Gryd and we got involved with VR [virtual reality], augmented reality (AR), technologies.”

Billinkoff went to Gray Academy of Jewish Education until Grade 7 before transferring to Grant Park High School and then finishing high school at the University of Winnipeg Collegiate.

“I was always curious about what was coming up next and I wanted to experiment with new technologies that I thought would be promising,” said Billinkoff. “I saw a lot of promise and potential in 3-D technology.

“When I say 3-D technology, I think of VR and AR. Both of these technologies are built on video game engines. The same tools that developers use to make video games are what our developers use to create 3-D models for VR and AR apps.”

So, they bought a 3-D camera and started filming some properties and some 3-D models of properties to gauge public interest. It was a hit with some of their already existing clients.

The product takes a couple of different forms.

“There are the 3-D tours,” said Billinkoff. “With the 3-D tours, you can view them with the headset on. So, the 3-D tours you can put online and you can use them on a desktop, tablet or phone.

“Taking it to the next level, you have a virtual reality headset and can view it in VR. So, you’re immersed in the property, which creates a dimensionally accurate 3-D model.”

To achieve this, Gryd uses a 3-D scanning camera that creates a wire frame of the environment it’s in. It places each VR photograph on top of the wire frame to make a 3-D model of the property. It is not a mere rendering, but a 3-D model that is dimensionally accurate.

On top of this, there is the floor plan, which users can view by clicking that option. “You can move it around in 3-D, so you can see different vantage points of the floor plan,” said Billinkoff. “The traditional virtual tours were 360-degree panoramic photos, where you click on one, wait for it to load, then click on another. But, with these 3-D models, you can actually walk around with a full range of motion … and, there are no loading wait times.”

photo - Gryd allows users to see a rental space as if they were actually in it — Gryd allows users to see a rental space as if they were actually in it. *(photo from Gryd)*

VR goggles are a new technology and most companies are just starting to use them in their leasing centres or corporate offices. The technology allows a potential lessee or buyer to be immersed in a place that is not yet built.

Because the technology is so new, Billinkoff has been holding off on releasing his 3-D videos for the past few years in order to build up a content library of tours before they launch.

While the 3-D headsets cost close to $300, Gryd is selling ones that are only $15 and allow anyone to use their own smartphone as the 3-D screen.

The biggest challenge has been convincing property managers to invest $250 on a property that typically rents in a couple of weeks during a slow period.

“So, we’re kind of fighting for the renters, to create a better user experience even in these markets where everything is leasing anyways,” said Billinkoff.

While most property managers are open to the idea of shooting 3-D tours, he said, “They just have such low vacancies that, a lot of times, they won’t even have a vacancy available, to be able to shoot the unit, for another half a year. So, there are a lot of logistical issues with that, because of the low vacancy.

“Also, property management isn’t known for being the most innovative industry. So, a lot of property managers are comfortable with their old-school routines and processes. This is something very new and high-tech.”

When Gryd first started shooting VR in 2015-2016, they would not mention it in the sales pitch, knowing it would likely cause resistance. Instead, they shot as many 3-D tours as they could over two to three years. Then, they launched a VR app, which has a library of 3-D tours, and property managers receive this bonus.

“We sold them the 3-D tours,” said Billinkoff. “Then, one day, which was a couple months ago, we put the switch on, and all the tours turned VR. And we informed all our clients that they now have this new and awesome bonus.”

At first, Billinkoff did all the shooting, but now Gryd has a network of trained photographers all over the country. Both Billinkoff and Glow have relocated from Winnipeg to Toronto to expand their business.

If someone visits gryd.com now, they will not yet be able to search for a place in Vancouver. But, that addition is currently in the works. Billinkoff anticipates that it will come into effect as of spring 2019.

“The number one thing we hear from all the property managers is that having the 3-D tours pre-qualifies the renters,” said Billinkoff. “So, if a renter is coming in to see the unit in person, they’re already very well-informed. They’ve already seen everything they need to know online. So, if they are coming in, they are already ready to put down a deposit on the property. They are just confirming everything is what it looks like online.

“It just makes the process more efficient, as they [the property managers] are weeding out tire kickers from coming in and taking a look at the apartment. Then, on the opposite end, it works great for renters, as they don’t need to waste time going to apartments they aren’t interested in. When they go to an apartment, they already know they like it, as they’ve seen everything online.”

For more information, visit gryd.com.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

New views on heart disease

Dr. Ross Feldman is leading various teams as the principal investigator for women’s health at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at the city’s St. Boniface Hospital. (photo from Dr. Ross Feldman)

Many of us are under the impression that heart disease mainly affects men. But researchers have been trying for the last few decades to change this skewed view. One such researcher, Dr. Ross Feldman, recently found his way to Winnipeg. Feldman is leading various teams as the principal investigator for women’s health at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at the city’s St. Boniface Hospital.

According to Feldman, “Most of what we know in terms of risk and benefit and treatment of those factors that contribute to heart disease initially came from studies of younger people with more advanced risk factors – be it cholesterol, high blood pressure, [etc.] – and what the benefit was from the treatment of those problems, in terms of reducing risk of heart attacks or strokes. Women tended not to be included in those studies, because premenopausal heart disease risk is so much lower. So, in the earlier days, we developed guidelines that were mostly based on findings in younger men. It really wasn’t appreciated that women had accelerating risk after menopause.”

This new understanding about the connection between post-menopause and heightened risk of heart disease has only come to light in the past 10 to 15 years. The Heart and Stroke Foundation is only now, within the last year, opting to make the topic a priority.

“I think it’s taken even longer for it to register on the psyche of healthcare professionals … that women are at an increased risk post-menopause,” Feldman told the Independent. “They’re also much less likely to be diagnosed appropriately, less likely to get appropriate treatment, and they are more likely to have complications with trying to fix blood vessel problems. They’re less likely to be sent out following a cardiac event on all the right medications. And then, ultimately, a little more likely to die of heart disease.”

Feldman believes this lag time – for women to get the correct diagnostics and treatments – will not change anytime soon, unfortunately, as the training provided in medical schools is still based on past knowledge about women and heart disease. Medical students are still being taught that women are more likely to present with atypical chest pain, with no further explanation, said Feldman.

“If women are most likely to present that way, why are you calling it atypical chest pain?” he asked. “It gives you an idea of how male-centric our whole approach to heart disease has been. What we get out of it is, you often see a dichotomy, that sometimes you’ll see premenopausal women at risk of being over-treated.

“A woman, premenopause with hypertension, probably doesn’t need blood pressure-lowering therapy unless their blood pressure is greater than 160 over 100. Whereas, a post-menopausal woman with multiple smaller elevations in individual risk factors – a little bit higher blood pressure, a little bit higher cholesterol – will often get overlooked…. Yet, she is at a much greater risk than will be projected, based on consideration of any individual risk factor.

“There needs to be a sex-specific approach to management of the risk factors of heart disease and the presentation for heart disease,” he said. “The guidelines for that approach are still in flux.”

As medical practitioners are lagging behind the latest findings about women and heart disease, Feldman said that premenopausal women don’t need to be as concerned about risk factors that may be a little out of whack, such as LDL cholesterol or blood pressure. However, he said, post-menopausal women need to be advocates for more aggressive treatment for even seemingly marginal elevations in risk factors.

“The problem is that primary care professionals, a lot of them, will tend to underestimate the risks,” said Feldman. “There are reasonable calculators that will tell people, if you add up several small risks for a post-menopausal woman, that translates into an overall risk level that mandates more aggressive therapy. Generally, blood pressure and cholesterol are the most important factors to look at, but it’s the whole aggregate risk based on the calculation that tells you how aggressively you need to treat, regardless of the extent of the elevation.”

While researchers like Feldman are working on sex-specific therapies, women can help themselves by reducing their degree of risk via exercise, maintaining a healthy weight and a healthy diet, keeping hydrated and finding ways to keep stress and anxiety levels down.

“As women age, as with men, excessive salt intake increases blood pressure and often that excessive salt doesn’t primarily come from the salt shaker, but from processed foods,” said Feldman. “When shopping, shop the rim of grocery stores. Stay away from the aisles. Maybe shop in the frozen food sections, but probably not.

“To date, there is no real sex-specific preventative approach. That is, exercise, as far as I know, is as effective in blood pressure reduction and weight reduction for men as it is for women … maybe a little more effective in women, but likely marginal differences. I think it’s important for women to know that weight gain and a more sedentary lifestyle are bigger risks for them than for men. Men tolerate being couch potatoes a little better than women do.

“The slope of the line for weight gain in men is pretty linear,” he said. “In women, there’s an increase in slope of weight gain after menopause. Women’s systems are less tolerant of the kinds of changes that occur with age than men’s.

“We know there are ethnic differences in risk tolerance,” he added. “We know that Asians are less tolerant to weight gain than Caucasians. That is a genetic difference. We hadn’t appreciated that sex differences work the same way, although we should have, as, ultimately, a sex difference is a genetic difference.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Trying to increase inclusion

Alisa Polsky, left, and Leamore Cohen attended the Jewish Federations of Canada-United Israel Appeal’s Pushing the Boundaries: Disability, Inclusion and Jewish Community conference in Toronto April 15-17. (photo by Liora Kogan)

Jewish Federations of Canada-United Israel Appeal’s Pushing the Boundaries: Disability, Inclusion and Jewish Community conference took place in Toronto April 15-17. It was the first national Jewish conference on these topics, and two representatives of the Jewish Commmunity Centre of Greater Vancouver attended.

Leamore Cohen, inclusion services coordinator at the JCCGV, was a panelist in a discussion on vibrant, inclusive communities and recreation. She was joined at the conference by Alisa Polsky, a member of the Bagel Club, a social group for adults with diverse needs.

“The Bagel Club community is very important for social interaction with other people, and to know there are other opportunities for learning and discovery,” Polsky told the Independent. “I got to discover the Vancouver I didn’t know before.

“The club inspires me to try new things that I’d never tried before. I’ve learned a lot about myself over the years and it has pushed me out of my shell. I’m grateful for this. I’m grateful for all the opportunities the club has provided, like going to Israel with my friends and this conference.”

Polsky has been an active member of the Vancouver Jewish community for years, with volunteering being a value her parents instilled in her as a child. At the time, the educational system had dubbed her “disabled.”

“When I was going to school, I was just pushed through,” said Polsky. “This was elementary school. I didn’t get the education I deserved. I was put into a special needs class. The education system segregated me away from the regular class. The teachers only wanted to work with the ‘normal’ kids.

“I would have liked more schooling. I deserved more schooling. I deserved to be in the classroom with the ‘normal’ kids. This still hurts. I am glad that things have changed, but it’s not enough. Some kids are still segregated today. We have to work together to change that. If not, more kids will feel like I did, which is not fair or right.”

Last year, on the trip to Israel with the Bagel Club, Polsky got to meet Member of Knesset Ilan Gilon, with whom she spoke about the struggles of people with diverse needs in Canada for proper benefit rates.

photo - Alisa Polsky at the Pushing the Boundaries: Disability, Inclusion and Jewish Community conference — Alisa Polsky at the Pushing the Boundaries: Disability, Inclusion and Jewish Community conference. *(photo by Liora Kogan)*

“When the Pushing the Boundaries conference came up, Leamore asked if I wanted to go,” said Polsky. “She told me that she was speaking with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver about having someone from our community attend. She said the Federation believed this was very important. It’s important to see how other organizations work with people with all kinds of diverse abilities, and that people with diverse abilities get to be part of the national conversation.”

This was the first conference Polsky had ever attended. She was happy to discover that, while other organizations charge for various activities, including the Pushing the Boundaries conference, the JCCGV and Vancouver Federation take into account the financial barriers many people with diverse needs face, and do not charge for such programs.

“I loved learning more about the youth-led mentoring programs in Israel, Krembo Wings,” said Polsky. “We got to spend time with them when we visited Israel. When I was younger, I never went to programs like that. I did volunteer and helped kids with learning disabilities learn how to swim. Given the chance, I was able to show that we all have something to give. Organizations like Krembo Wings ensure that the next generation will help each other to learn and achieve their potential, no matter who they are.”

Polsky said it is very important to hear from other Jewish groups about what they offer in their communities and what their issues are. In this way, she said, she and others can be stronger self-advocates and more involved in the community.

Maybe most encouraging for Polsky was realizing that she has partners in her goal for equal rights for community participation, and also that Jewish organizations are beginning to work together across Canada to remove barriers.

“I am overcoming these barriers through my membership with the Bagel Club community, with my family, who have been there for me, through volunteering and through my spiritual community,” said Polsky. “I feel it is my time to give back to the community that has given me so much over the years.

“The conference was about the lives of Jewish people with diverse abilities – and they should be at the table. I am proud that I was at the table with Leamore.”

Polsky said there is a lot to be gained from attending gatherings like Pushing the Boundaries. In particular, there is the opportunity to “exchange ideas and share resources,” said Polsky. “It’s also important to understand our history as Jewish people, and as people with diverse needs in this country. I’d like readers to recognize that we’re all partners in making the community better.”

Some conference highlights for Polsky included the synagogue panel on creating inclusive communities and the recreation panel, in which Cohen took part. There were other topics covered, as well.

“As a Jewish woman and a woman with diverse needs, it was hard, but important to learn about the eugenics movement in Canada,” said Polsky. “This movement meant that a woman who had a pregnancy where a child who was mentally or physically challenged would be encouraged to abort the pregnancy. Families were also encouraged to institutionalize their disabled children. And they also forced sterilization.

“We learned about the denationalization movement and the development of community living.

We also learned about integration into schools and housing developments that are currently being built, which are inclusive and accessible, in Ontario.”

Polsky said she is fortunate to be living in a cooperative, and living independently. She noted that some people with diverse needs, who may require semi-independent living, are still segregated in Canada today, due to zoning laws that keep them out of certain neighbourhoods, which she describes as “horrible.”

“Having participated in this conference,” she said, “I can tell other people what I have learned and I can encourage people in my community to vote and to get active in their communities. I can remind politicians how powerful we can be when we work together and that disabilities communities are large and strong, and that we can make a difference in all aspects of community life.”

For more information about the conference, visit jewishcanada.org.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Digital impact on our lives

(photo from publicdomainpictures.net)

Dr. Simon Trepel, child analyst and psychiatrist at the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre, is seeing an increasing number of children and teenagers using phones – even during sessions.

“I was hearing more and more from parents about some difficulties they were having around technology and screen time,” said Trepel. “I was noticing, even in my own family, how pervasive screens are becoming … as a preferred source of entertainment, as well.

“When this stuff marinates in you for awhile, it makes you curious about deeper questions about what’s going on. It ultimately behooves anybody who is working in mental health to start wondering about all the ingredients that might be contributing to someone’s mental health…. I became more curious about how these devices and screen time might be affecting, not just kids and teens, but, really, all of us.”

According to Trepel, using technology in daily life is no longer a choice. It is a fundamental part of how we all get by. Most of us check our phones several times a day, and conduct business and communication on our phones or tablets almost exclusively.

He said there are about four billion people using the internet right now worldwide, and a third of those people are children and teens. There are about five billion people using mobile phones and a little over three billion people on social media at any given time, he said. And, these are all increases of anywhere from five to 15% in comparison to the previous year.

“These trends are changing how we communicate,” said Trepel. “They are changing how much face-to-face communication we have and the nature of the communication itself. The previous generation would use words and texts. Now, videos, pictures and memos are the preferred way to communicate. It’s changing the very ingredients we use to communicate with one another.”

There are implications to this change, especially in children, whose not yet fully developed brains are particularly susceptible to getting into trouble online. But, Trepel said, there is something that can be done – and it starts with adults getting off their phones and other screens, especially when around young people. We also need to start talking about these issues, as kids who come from homes that discuss such topics tend to be less at risk.

“When there’s a more negotiated amount of technology use and supervision and things like that, that is a good thing,” said Trepel. “But, there are many, many kids who have a combination of not a lot of supervision combined with having an immature brain, and these kids are the ones we are most worried about getting into trouble online.

“We worry that screens are displacing a lot of other activities that might be healthier than being on technology – things like getting adequate sleep or being outside. The amount of hours spent outside is now at about half of what it used to be. It’s gone from about 18 hours a week to about seven hours a week in one single generation.”

Getting a handle on this will not be easy, but it starts with parents making the time to fully understand the tech diet of their kids. Just like we monitor their food intake, we need to monitor their tech intake.

“Sit down with them and let them take you through a typical day,” advised Trepel. “What types of sites are they using and for how long? What types of interactions are they are having on this site? The timing of this is important. Is it the first thing they do in the day, getting on their device? Is it the last thing they do before bed? Do they themselves detect any problems with their screen use? Are they running into any cyber-bullying or being taken advantage of? Do they feel better or worse after using their phones? Do they notice phones cutting into their sleep, or do they notice themselves having a difficult time stopping themselves from checking? This is the beginning of getting data about how your kids and teens are using their phones. But, it’s also starting to ask the question of whether or not this is becoming a problem for your kid or teen.”

Trepel suggested that, when you monitor your kids, you want to make sure it is active monitoring – that you are co-viewing and discussing the sites that they are on. It is also important to avoid spy-type programs, he said, as kids will find ways to work around them.

Aim to be playing together, following each other on social media. Use any opportunity for educational guidance – not so much making it a single conversation, but, instead, an ongoing dialogue about the device. You can ask for their help learning about social media, for example. “I think that’s a very elegant way to cover a lot of bases,” said Trepel. “It allows the parent to learn a lot about what the kid is using, in terms of technology use. But, it also updates the parents as to what these social media sites are all about – how they are navigated, how they are used.

“It may also be a great way for kids and parents to spend more time together, interacting with each other, teaching each other. While they might teach you about Twitter, you might be able to point out various ways they are using the technology that might be helpful or harmful. You might, if the child teaches you Twitter, find out if the child has a public account and is being followed by hundreds of people the child has never met before.

“It’s not only a way to have a child feel good about helping a parent, but, once the parent knows more about the technology, the parent can start to look for red flags.”

Studies have shown that parental behaviour is one of the most powerful influences on a child’s behaviour. So, Trepel suggests taking an honest look at yourself as a parent, about how embedded these devices are in your own life. And then, start to change that for yourself, while also becoming a good role model for your kids.

“You want to be proactive with your kids,” said Trepel. “You don’t want to wait until there’s a problem. You want to educate them to the possibility of problems.

“You also want to be proactive about texting and driving. This really might be the drinking and driving of our generation. I remember, when I was in high school, there was MADD, Mother’s Against Drunk Driving. I think we need some sort of revival of that, looking at parents being concerned about texting and driving. The stats from Manitoba are striking that, just five or 10 years ago, we were seeing maybe 3,000 collisions per year. And, in the span of just a few years, it’s now up to 11,000 collisions involving distracted driving per year – a four- or fivefold increase, about 30 distracted driving collisions a day.”

Trepel said it is best to avoid taking technology away without offering an alternative. Make it easy for kids to see their friends in real life, he said. Let them go over to their friends’ houses, take them places they want to go, and do things they want to do – provide them with in-person opportunities. Play a board game, do arts-and-crafts, encourage them to learn to play an instrument or participate in a sport. Off-screen activities, he said, have a greater likelihood of making your kids feel happy as compared to on-screen activities.

Trepel suggested having your kids turn off their phone notifications at important times of the day, like sleep time, family time, meal time, school time, and so on. And make sure that you do the same.

“Every time we get a signal from our phone, it could be someone liking our photo or giving us a compliment, or something we anticipate might be good,” said Trepel. “And that reward system in our brain kicks into gear and compels us to want to check what the notifications are. Once our screen is on and in our hands, we might end up surfing or doing something else we weren’t even intending to do – at the expense of whatever original activity we were doing before the notification occurred. So, we have to make sure that we turn off all those attention stealers.”

Trepel recommended that parents turn off the wifi after 9 p.m., or even earlier, if they think there will be a significant battle to have their kids turn off their screens in the evening or if it is affecting their ability to do homework.

Or, he added, you can get your kids a phone with no internet capabilities. Some executives, he said, have even switched back to such phones, as they were wasting too much of their time when they had a phone with more tech capabilities.

For starters, Trepel said, begin the conversation. Ask your kids for ways to keep things under control. Dialogue, go back and forth, and find ways that work for your family.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

New NFB series on basketball

Ryan Sidhoo’s new docuseries, True North, looks at the youth basketball scene in Toronto. (photo by Yasin Osman)

“Wherever I travel, I go play pickup basketball and I always make friends, and maybe end up at someone’s house for dinner … you go ask to play basketball on someone’s court, there’s always that moment of, ‘Who is this guy?’ but, once you get out there and you start playing, it’s an inviting, universal sport that you don’t need a lot to participate in,” filmmaker Ryan Sidhoo told the Independent in a phone interview from Toronto.

Sidhoo is the creator and director of True North, a nine-part online docuseries produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and Red Bull Media House about the youth basketball scene in Toronto.

“More and more young Canadians are playing basketball – over 350,000 according to the 2014 Canada Youth Sports Report – and the trend is particularly pronounced in and around Toronto, where a wave of second- and third-generation Canadians are shaping Canada’s new game,” notes an NFB blog about the series. It also notes that, “Canada now has over a dozen players in the NBA [National Basketball Association], more than any other outside country.”

In episodes ranging from 15 to 23 minutes, True North examines “the rise of the Toronto hoop dream through the stories of five young athletes.”

The series – which was three years in the making – “has a multigenerational appeal,” said Sidhoo, who spoke with players, coaches and families. Given the subject matter and format, he said younger viewers enjoy it but that, also, people closer to the age of the parents of the kids featured get something out of it from a parenting point of view.

In the series format, he said, we can tell in-depth stories, “but then that 15-minute episode has to be focused on one kid and their journey. I think that’s an appeal of the series, because they’re highly personal episodes and they’re not trying to do too much at once.”

Sidhoo has worked on various projects, including for Pulse Films, MTV and NBCUniversal, and he has produced and directed content across various VICE platforms; he was the creator and executive producer of Welcome to Fairfax, a 10-part docuseries for Participant Media about a group of young entrepreneurs in Los Angeles.

Born and raised in Vancouver, he’s since lived in California and New York. It was in New York that he earned his master’s in media studies, with a focus on documentary filmmaking, from the New School, in 2013.

“The seeds of the project were really planted at that time,” he said, referring to True North. At the New School, he wanted to do a project “on this old streetball legend named Fly Williams, who I’d read about in a book my dad had given me as a kid called Heaven is a Playground.”

In his search for Williams, Sidhoo ended up at a few different basketball tournaments. At the time, YouTube was just taking off, he said. “What I was seeing at these gyms in New York were these parents marketing their children as the next best basketball phenom. You started to see this cottage industry around youth basketball.”

Fascinated by this, Sidhoo said he kept his finger on the pulse of that world. He noticed that Canadians were having a lot of success getting into the NBA and the question of how basketball became significant in Canada led him to Toronto, “the epicentre of it all.”

“For me,” said Sidhoo of his love of basketball, “growing up in Vancouver, and, especially, having immigrant roots on both sides – my mom is Ashkenazi, they came from Poland and Winnipeg and eventually Vancouver, [while] my dad’s side of the family is from India – I just think that the popular sport in Canada is, obviously, hockey, and winter sports in general have more of a built-in tradition … [but] basketball lends itself to newcomers to a country, so my dad gravitated towards basketball as a kid. For me, growing up, basketball was always in the house, it was always on TV, it was something that I was around and I, naturally, through my dad, was introduced to the sport…. Of course, I like hockey and Wayne Gretzky and all that, but basketball was the thing that was a part of my identity … I always felt comfortable in the niche community of basketball in Vancouver because it was really diverse and it was very multicultural. As someone who had these mixed backgrounds, I felt at home in that world.”

Sidhoo played in various leagues in Vancouver, as well as participating in more than one JCC Maccabi Games. He described as “pivotal,” the Kitsilano Youth Basketball, run by Mel Davis, a former Harlem Globetrotter. Davis’s son, Hubert Davis, directed Hardwood, a documentary (also produced by the NFB) about his relationship with his father and basketball. When Sidhoo saw that film, he said he had two thoughts: “one, that’s amazing, because I know Mel and remember Hubert refereeing the games but then, secondly, it’s projects like that that plant the seed that, hey, maybe I could be a documentary filmmaker, too.”

As a kid, Sidhoo and his brother were encouraged to do what they wanted creatively. “I’d go out back and make videos of myself playing basketball,” he said. “My dad was always showing us films that maybe he shouldn’t have been showing us at that young an age, but explaining why he was showing them. So, basketball was always there and these offbeat films, or films that were aged above my viewing in terms of age appropriateness, that was always a constant, too.”

Growing up, he was also exposed to books, art shows and other culture. Sidhoo recalled his father taking him to one of the first Slam City Jams, a skateboard competition, in the early 1990s, when Sidhoo was 5 or 6 years old. “Back then, skateboarding wasn’t as corporate as it is now, it was still pretty punk,” he said. And, while it was a bit different to be at such an event, “at the same time, it’s normal because I’ve been consuming this kind of content and going to different, what you could call counter-culture, events, with my dad. So, the fascination with subculture was always there, along with basketball.”

True North is Sidhoo’s first project with the NFB. He called the film board with his idea while in Vancouver, and spoke with Shirley Vercruysse, executive producer of NFB BC & Yukon Studio. “She was open-minded,” said Sidhoo and connected him to the paperwork he’d have to submit for the NFB to consider producing the documentary.

“What I think attracted the National Film Board,” he said, “was that basketball is shaping Canadian identity, because we’re exporting so many amazing basketball players to the south that the perception of Canada is not just hockey anymore … basketball is part of the shifting Canadian identity. On a global, macro picture, that resonated with the film board. And then, also tapping into the human, story-driven documentary approach that I wanted to take is what the film board has been doing for a really long time. It spoke to a story that was big, but then also was told through the intimate, personal narratives of these kids. It was a nice combination for them, I think.”

True North is the first online docuseries for the NFB. It can be viewed on the NFB’s YouTube channel and on Red Bull TV.

Taking abusers to court

In the third of a series of articles on sexual harassment and violence in the Jewish community, the Jewish Independent speaks with lawyer Megan Ellis, Q.C.

Megan Ellis is one of the first lawyers in Canada to have devoted a significant part of her practice to pursuing claims on behalf of adult survivors of sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse.

In 1976, Ellis began volunteering at a rape crisis centre in Vancouver. This led to jobs working at rape crisis centres in Vancouver and in London, England, from the late 1970s to early 1980s.

“I was interested in law,” she said. “I always have been. It was my intention to become a lawyer eventually.”

Ellis passed the bar in 1988 and went into civil claims. In 1992, she and her partner led a successful challenge to the time limitation in Canada. As a result, in 1993, the law was changed in British Columbia, and the province became the first jurisdiction in Canada to remove the time limit for survivors to bring claims against perpetrators and institutions regarding sexual abuse.

In that groundbreaking case, an uncle was charged with sexually abusing several girls in the family over several decades from the 1950s to 1970. The girls were toddlers – as young as 2 years old – when the abuse began, and it continued into their early teens.

Many more cases have since followed.

“I have children’s parents who call me and ask what to do when their kids have been sexually abused,” said Ellis. “I discuss with them what they want their outcome to look like. Often, they haven’t decided if they want to go through a criminal process or not. So, they have to make that decision initially. If they decide they want to go through a criminal process, I ask them to wait until that is concluded before commencing a civil process – unless there are unusual circumstances, like it looks like the perpetrator might die, move all their assets to a Swiss bank account, or something like that.”

Once a decision is made to proceed through the civil system, Ellis collects all the relevant documents, such as income records, counseling records, medical records and educational records – as much information as possible. She then reviews everything and starts the process of drafting the legal documents, filing them and serving them to the perpetrator or institution.

“One thing I always discuss is whether or not that should be preceded by a demand letter,” said Ellis. “Sometimes, I collect all the information and put together a settlement letter in hopes the person will settle and pay out the claim, rather than go through the more public civil system.”

The settlement letter states what the accused did, that these are the consequences and the accuser wants X amount of dollars paid within a given time frame. The letter also states that, if the accused does not pay, the accuser will sue.

If the perpetrator does not settle, one can expect the legal cost to run between $10,000 and $15,000. Ellis advises her clients to verify that the perpetrator has assets.

“There are many people I have to tell, ‘Look, I do not doubt what you’re telling me at all, but it might appear that the perpetrator doesn’t have assets,’” said Ellis. “And there’s no point suing someone who doesn’t have assets.”

Claimants also need to take into consideration that, to date, the damages awarded for sexual abuse have been very low; in some cases, similar to what someone would get for mild whiplash from an accident.

“They don’t actually recognize the long-term effects of one incident, depending on the circumstances,” said Ellis. “They’ve been getting better over the years, but there’s still quite a long stretch before judges understand the very serious long-term implications.… There are 25-year-olds who get raped and it has a profound impact on the rest of their lives. The social reaction to being raped and the effects that it has are long-term. They are permanent. I think it’s fair to say that anyone who’s been raped has been permanently changed by that experience.”

In British Columbia, a lawsuit can take two to three years from start to finish. As for privacy, one can expect a ban on publication, though that is not guaranteed. Both the court records and courtrooms are publicly accessible.

If one is determined to confront their perpetrator, they may have a hard time finding representation. Lawyers who take on such cases are overburdened.

“My instructions for my staff are that I am booked for no more than four consultations per week,” said Ellis. “That was two or three years ago. Now, I’ve cut off … I’m not able to take more. I have enough now to keep me going for quite some time and I can’t possibly take any new cases. So, it’s gone from four per week to zero. And I’m not keeping tabs on all the people I’m turning away. I give other names, but I’m not sure of who’s taking these cases at the moment.”

Ellis has been instrumental in changing the law that allowed perpetrators to claim bankruptcy to escape paying the judgment.

“What started to happen in the first few years I was doing this is that the perpetrators would fight the cases and then spend all their money defending themselves,” said Ellis. “And then, they’d end up going bankrupt and walk away from the judgment.

“I was involved in amendments to the bankruptcy and insolvency act, which meant that you didn’t get rid of a judgment for assault or sexual assault just by going into bankruptcy – the judgment survives the bankruptcy. So, they may have gotten rid of their assets, but they haven’t lost their capacity to earn income, their inheritances … there are ways to go after them. The perpetrator’s thinking before was that they’d rather pay lawyers than pay their accusers, thinking that, then, it’ll be gone and they won’t have to worry about it.

“Funnily enough, I haven’t had a case where the perpetrator has gone into bankruptcy since.”

Since the #MeToo movement, Ellis has noticed a change in how various companies and institutions deal with their responsibility, a shift to more appropriate responses to allegations of abuse. The movement also has helped instil in people’s minds is that, typically, when it comes to sexual abuse, there is not just one victim, there are many.

“This is because there are all kinds of efforts the perpetrator makes to silence their victims,” said Ellis. “Societal mores are such that it doesn’t take a whole lot, because there’s fear and disbelief … and then, the perpetrator adds to it by saying, ‘If you ever tell anyone, you won’t be believed,’ etc.

“One thing that is particularly problematic in institutions is that they generally turn a blind eye in order to protect themselves … unless somebody’s standing on their doorstep with a picket sign.

“Essentially, what’s happened is that someone is now standing on their doorstep with a picket sign. Many of the institutions I’ve sued, there were, I believe, people, who knew but didn’t come forward, partly due to consequences for workers, teachers, social workers … for coming forward and making an accusation. They don’t want to take it on.”

Institutions are learning the hard way that it’s more cost effective for them to educate their employees about what abuse is and to report it.

“One place where there is still a lot of abuse is in the workplace,” said Ellis, giving the example of sexual harassment. “But, that’s an employment law context and I personally have never dealt with those cases.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Jewish Heritage Month

York Centre Liberal MP Michael Levitt and Sen. Linda Frum hold copies of Bill S-232, the Canadian Jewish Heritage Month Act. (photo from CJN)

From now on, May will be Canadian Jewish Heritage Month across the country. The bill proclaiming the annual event passed its third and final reading in the House of Commons on March 28. The vote was unanimous.

The Canadian Jewish Heritage Month Act, known as Bill S-232, passed in the Senate before heading to the House. It received royal assent and became law on March 29, making this month the inaugural Jewish Heritage Month.

Sponsored by Conservative Sen. Linda Frum and Liberal MP Michael Levitt, the bill was introduced in December 2016, though the groundwork for it was laid in 2015, when former Mount Royal MP Irwin Cotler introduced the substance of the bill.

Canadian Jewish Heritage Month “will provide an opportunity for all Canadians to reflect on and celebrate the incredible contributions that Jewish Canadians have made to our country, in communities across Canada,” said Levitt in a statement.

“I am delighted that Canadian Jewish Heritage Month will be enacted into law in time to celebrate in May,” Frum said in a statement to the CJN prior to the royal assent being given. Jewish Heritage Month “will provide many opportunities for all Canadians to learn about the significant contributions of the Jewish community in Canada.”

The evening before the bill’s passage, several MPs spoke warmly of the Canadian Jewish community’s history and contributions to the country.

Referring to Toronto’s Jews, Toronto Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin said, “We have made our mark in the city, showing all the things we can contribute in so many ways through our cultural centres, art and food.”

She noted Toronto’s many Jewish cultural offerings, including the Ashkenaz Festival, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival and classes at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre. Jewish Heritage Month “is going to be a chance to celebrate so much of what we have,” Dabrusin said.

British Columbia Conservative MP Dan Albas said, “in virtually every Canadian endeavour, in virtually every decade since the 1930s, Jewish Canadians have made significant and important contributions to virtually every area of Canadian life.”

It was a “proud moment” in February 2016 when 229 MPs passed a motion condemning the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, Albas stated. He made special mention of those running the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre in his riding.

London, Ont., NDP MP Irene Mathyssen mentioned Canada’s “none is too many” policy in regards to the admission of European Jews between 1933 and 1945, and of the ship MS St. Louis, which carried 907 German Jews and was refused entry to Canada in 1939, sending 254 passengers to their deaths in the Holocaust.

In the years following the Second World War, nearly 100 Holocaust survivors found their way to the southern Ontario city. Many “became active in the life of London as business leaders, doctors, academics, retailers, developers and political activists. They also developed religious organizations, corporations and charities,” Mathyssen said.

She noted the launch, in 2006, of the Shoah Project at London’s Jewish community centre to record survivors’ testimonies, and she quoted from them.

Luc Berthold, a Quebec Conservative, noted that Canada is not the first country to create a Jewish heritage month. In 2006, former U.S. president George W. Bush signed a resolution proclaiming the month of May as the time to celebrate the contributions of the American Jewish community.

Berthold praised Quebec’s Jewish community and listed many household names from the province: poet and singer Leonard Cohen; television host Sonia Benezra; Alan B. Gold, who, in 1970, became the first Jew appointed chief justice of the Provincial Court of Quebec (now the Court of Quebec), and then the chief justice of the Quebec Superior Court in 1983; Dr. Victor Goldbloom, the first Jew appointed to a provincial cabinet; Maurice Pollack of Quebec City department store fame; real estate tycoon Marcel Adams; grocery magnate Sam Steinberg; and the Reitman family, owners of the women’s clothing chain.

In his remarks, Levitt paid lengthy tribute to Cotler, his “dear friend and mentor” and “one of the world’s preeminent international legal minds and human rights advocates.”

This type of initiative “helps Canadians understand one another by allowing different communities and cultures to be showcased and celebrated,” stated Shimon Koffler Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “Understanding and appreciating the contribution different communities make to Canada brings us close together as Canadians.”

To mark passage of the bill, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre released a 72-page resource guidebook, available to community groups and school boards across the country, to enhance participation in Jewish Heritage Month.

Ontario passed the Jewish Heritage Month Act in 2012. It, too, sets aside each May to mark various events on the Jewish calendar, including the UJA Walk for Israel, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Jewish Music Week and Israel’s Independence Day.

– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com

On a mitzvah mission

Jessica Cohn and her kids, Tamara and Jeremy, created the Friend Send to help others across Canada. (photo from Jessica Cohn)

Last October, Jessica Cohn, a Vaughan, Ont., mother of 10-year-old twins Tamara and Jeremy, was scrolling through Facebook when she found messages by other mothers that disturbed and saddened her.

“They were saying their kids were down because no one had come to their birthday parties,” Cohn recalled. “I told my kids and they immediately wanted to attend those parties, which was impossible because the children were located all over Canada.” Instead, the trio opted for the next best thing: to send those children birthday cards so they would feel less alone and more cared for. They got to work right away.

That initiative turned into the Friend Send, the Cohns’ personal mitzvah mission, which quickly extended beyond birthday cards to children 12 and under experiencing bullying or feeling friendless and lonely. Cohn and her children have sent 240 cards across the country.

“My kids have written on almost every card, and they love doing this,” she told the Independent. “We have a huge card box and they go through it to select a card they think a particular child would like. Once they’ve written their message, I add my own.”

When Annie Miron first heard about the idea, she was skeptical, but the Nanaimo mom was worried about her daughter, Trinity, 12, who was having a hard time making friends. “People were picking on her behind her back and she was really depressed, thinking all kids are mean,” she said. “A couple months ago, when I told Jessica what Trinity was going through, she sent a card and a letter in the mail.”

The card was deeply meaningful to her daughter, said Miron. “It told her that she mattered and that people cared about her, so she understood there are nice kids out there. After that, her attitude changed drastically and everything turned around for her at school. This positive message really does work and Jessica and her children saved our family.”

Dawn Chouinard, a Westbank, B.C., mother, has also seen a change in her 13-year-old daughter, Kate-lynn Grist, who was being bullied at school and was feeling friendless.

“She was so ecstatic when she received a card and it made such a difference to know that people were rooting for her,” Chouinard told the Independent. “The Friend Send is a really good idea because it can make a big difference to a child when a stranger gives you that boost, and it doesn’t come from mom or dad. Kate-lynn is a little more confident at school now, and I’ve noticed that, if she sees someone else struggling, she might be more inclined to offer them a word of encouragement now.”

Cohn has used Facebook to spread word of the Friend Send, and has heard some heartbreaking stories of children experiencing harrowing times. It’s her hope that the cards will give them the lift they need, the reminder that there are caring people out there offering support and encouragement, and that the bullying or isolation they are experiencing on the playground or sports field are not representative of the world at large.

“What surprised me was how many requests we get for cards for boys – way more than what we get for girls,” she said. She shared the experience of Cody, a child who started playing hockey later in life because his parents couldn’t afford the lessons. He was less skilled than the other kids and, as a result, they wouldn’t let him join their game. “It made me so sad, because he loved the game so much, and for him to be excluded because he was less skilful was heartbreaking,” Cohn said.

“I spend a long time talking with the parents on Facebook, especially the mothers, because I find they often don’t have anyone to support or understand them. People don’t understand how hard it is to see your child coming home crying every day. When their children receive some encouragement, this support means so much to them.”

If there’s one message Cohn wants to convey to parents of children who are being bullied, it’s not to be embarrassed about what is going on. “I wish I could tell every parent out there how special their children are, and how much love and respect they deserve,” Cohn said.

To find out more about the Friend Send, to request a card or to become a card-writer, visit facebook.com/thefriendsend.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

The ethics of cloning

Prof. Arthur Schafer, head of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba. (photo from Arthur Schafer)

After a few Chinese researchers recently released a report about their successful cloning of monkeys, the ethics debate about both cloning and the use of monkeys for research reignited.

“It’s not the first time primates have been cloned,” University of Manitoba philosophy professor Arthur Schafer told the Independent, “but it is the first time it has been done by this method.”

A primate is a zoological classification for mammals such as humans, apes and monkeys that are distinguished by, among other things, higher intelligence than other animals.

“The method previously used for cloning primates was called ‘embryo splitting.’ That’s what happens when a mother has identical twins,” explained Schafer, who heads the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics at the U of M and lectures on the ethics of cloning. “The method they used [in China] is called ‘the Dolly Method,’ named after the famous cloning of Dolly the Sheep. Dolly the Sheep was cloned from the breast tissue of the animal being cloned. (Dolly was named after Dolly Parton.) They used an adult cell.”

An advantage of this method over the cell-splitting technique is that you have the potential of getting many more clones, said Schafer. With cell-splitting, you can only get two.

With respect to the ethics of cloning and of using monkeys for research, Schafer said, “The first point is that the success rate is very low – two out of 60. They produced a number of additional embryos that didn’t result in live births or healthy animals.

“With Dolly the Sheep, the success rate was even lower…. Well over 200 clones of Dolly were produced to get one successful live birth of a healthy Dolly clone.”

Another important question is whether or not this research will make human cloning more likely. At present, a major reason why creating a human clone would be unethical is because the chances of the baby being born severely impaired physically or mentally are very high. “No ethical physician would want to use this as reproductive technology or would participate in it, because the chances of getting a healthy baby would be small,” said Schafer.

He said, “The technology will get better and better and could, eventually, maybe in the not-too-distant future, be safe and effective. And, at that point, it might become a viable way for a couple to have a baby. So, if you think this reproductive technology is ethically objectionable for humans, then you’d be opposed to primate experimentation on those grounds.”

For those whose primary objection to human cloning “is that it’s ineffective and unsafe” and “that you have a lot of stillborn babies and that those born alive would have a high chance of being severely impaired,” improvements of the technology could be a reason for primate testing.

Schafer said that human reproductive cloning could become as effective as in vitro fertilization (IVF).

“People got very irate in 1978 when a baby was born by IVF,” he said. “They thought this was a method that was morally wrong – a crime against the baby, against society. But somehow, it is turning out to be not so unsafe, not significantly less safe than natural childbirth. And it can enable, maybe a couple million couples, to have babies who wouldn’t otherwise be able to.”

Schafer postulated that, just as IVF is no longer on the current ethics chopping block, so too cloning may someday reach the point of being considered safe enough to be an acceptable reproduction method.

“The whole debate is about if it is unethical and, if yes, why?” said Schafer. “I think everyone agrees that safety and effectiveness is critical. But, once we get beyond that, some feel it is a case of playing God.”

Currently, human cloning research will land you in prison. But, animal cloning research is allowed in some countries on the grounds that it is for the purpose of making higher-producing animals – a chicken that can lay more eggs, for example, or a cow that can produce more milk or is better at putting on meat. Cloning research for such purposes has been allowed and has been given large financial resources.

“So, where it’s permitted, the rationale is that this technology will enable us to do medical research and to advance scientific knowledge in a way that will improve the quality of lives,” said Schafer. “It’s a matter of weighing and balancing your hope for benefit against your fear of repercussions.

“In discussions I’ve had with Jewish authorities, who although are divided amongst themselves, the predominant strand stresses that one value trumps all others – that being human life. So, you could use that as the basis for an argument that any technology that would hold promise of saving human lives would be favoured by Judaism.”

There is still the concern about conducting research on monkeys.

“Many people, and not just animal rights advocates, regard primates as the last animals, eligible animals, for experimentation,” said Schafer. “They are the most intelligent, the most like us. They have highly developed brains and nervous systems. They are, in many ways, more intelligent than human beings who are impaired or adults who have dementia or are in a vegetative state. We don’t allow medical research on severely cognitively impaired human beings, so how could it be ethical to do research on these closest relatives in the animal world, primates?”

Schafer said there has been a drastic decline in the amount of research done on primates in general, and monkeys in particular.

“You can’t justify the risks of severe harm on primates,” said Schafer. “Either they shouldn’t be used at all or, a compromise position, they should only be used as a last recourse for medical research – only used when incredibly necessary and for a supremely important goal.”

It is on these lines that scientists justify some of the research being done on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“They believe this technology will allow them to produce animal models that will facilitate research on diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s,” said Schafer. “So, do we need to do this research? Are there other better alternatives? Is the moral [price of] experimenting on primates too high to justify the medical benefits it hopes to achieve? These are all issues that are critical to the debate.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.