• Canada: Inuktitut album is bringing connection with Indigenous languages
• Canada moves to protect coral reef that scientists say 'shouldn't exist'
• Canada: Nisga'a language degree to be offered at University of Northern B.C.

• Stress, meditation and Hans Selye: An ancient solution to a modern problem - featuring research on mothers in Uganda
• Canada: Entrepreneur Alan Phillips - Transcendental Meditation an 'important tool' in business
• Canadian Women's Wellness Initiative: Protecting our policewomen

• 'Apocalyptic' scenes as Canadians flee wildfires
• Mercury exposure linked to high youth suicides in Canada First Nation
• Canadian wildfire smoke puts around 70 million US residents under air quality alerts

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Canada: Inuktitut album is bringing connection with Indigenous languages
9 April 2024 - Inuktitut album immerses the audiences in songs they already love, in an ancient language that creates curiosity and alliances. (more)

Canada moves to protect coral reef that scientists say 'shouldn't exist'
20 March 2024 - Discovery was made after First Nations tipped off ecologists about groups of fish gathering in a fjord off British Columbia. Deep in the hostile waters off Canada's west coast, in a narrow channel surrounded by fjords, lies a coral reef that scientists believe 'shouldn't exist'. ...The discovery marks the latest in a string of instances in which Indigenous knowledge has directed researchers to areas of scientific or historic importance. (more)

Canada: Nisga'a language degree to be offered at University of Northern B.C.
23 December 2023 - A new bachelor of arts degree in Nisga'a language fluency will be offered at the University of Northern British Columbia starting next September. B.C. Minister of Post-Secondary Education Selina Robinson says investing in such programs is critical for strengthening Indigenous language revitalization, while moving toward meaningful reconciliation. (more)

New plant-based and biodegradable filter removes over 99 percent of microplastics in water without creating further pollution
8 December 2023 - The dangers of the micro and nanoplastics floating in our water are a big concern. While efficient and scalable solutions are not yet known, many researchers have begun working on ways to protect human health. A new solution, published by University of British Columbia researchers in Advanced Materials, offers a plant-based and largely organic method of filtering these tricky parts out. The system obtained a remarkable 99.9 percent success in removing the particles. (more)

Canada: How Nipissing First Nation is healing environmental damage
9 November 2023 - On a sunny day in early October, three members of Nipissing First Nation paddled their way through stalks of manoomin, or wild rice, growing seven feet above the Veuve River off Lake Nipissing in northeastern Ontario. The group has been encouraging the aquatic native grass to spread as a way to tackle invasive plants and repopulate the land with a traditional source of food for birds, small mammals, and humans. (more)

New dawn for Arctic's first people: the Inuit plan to reclaim their sea
27 August 2023 - The environment Inuit have lived in for millennia is changing fast. Canada's government once ignored Indigenous knowledge of it but now they are jointly creating the Nunatsiavut conservation area. (more)

How indigenous conservation protects Canada's environment
13 August 2023 - In Canada, centring conservation with the country's indigenous peoples is allowing its original stewards to reconnect to their land and culture -- and proving remarkably effective. (more)

Indigenous singer beautifully covers The Beatles' song 'Blackbird' in Mi'kmaq language
22 July 2023 - The Beatles have a number of hits and 'Blackbird' is undoubtedly one of their most popular and beautiful songs. Written by Paul McCartney in 1968, the track explores themes of faith and hope. As such, its message has resonated with people all over the world. One of those people touched by the song is Emma Stevens, a member of the Eskasoni First Nation in Nova Scotia, Canada. The 16-year-old student performed a soulful cover of 'Blackbird,' with the lyrics translated into the Mi'kmaq language. (more)

Bird brains can flick switch to perceive Earth's magnetic field  
14 June 2023 - Earth's magnetic field, generated by the flow of molten iron in the planet's inner core, extends out into space and protects us from cosmic radiation emitted by the sun. It is also remarkably used by animals like salmon, sea turtles, and migratory birds for navigation. A new study from researchers at Western's Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR) ... explores a brain region called cluster N that migratory birds use to perceive Earth's magnetic field. (more)

How Toronto's Don River, once declared dead, is roaring back to life
25 May 2023 - After decades of illness, including a cholera scare and bouts of malaria, Toronto's Don River succumbed to mounting neglect and was pronounced dead in 1969. After more than half a century, however, the river has roared back to life. Wildlife is gingerly returning to areas that were once the site of heavy industry. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Stress, meditation and Hans Selye: An ancient solution to a modern problem - featuring research on mothers in Uganda
1 December 2021 - Pioneering doctor and researcher Hans Selye first incorporated the term 'stress' into the medical lexicon in the 1930s. He emphasised that stress can be positive, propelling us to grow; but overwhelming stress triggers a negative physiological response. In 1972, Dr Selye met with the founder of the Transcendental Meditation programme during an international scientific symposium. 'It was my good fortune to have spent almost an entire day with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,' Dr Selye said. 'Ever since then, I have felt it would be extremely fruitful to explore in detail the obvious physiological and psychological influence exerted by Transcendental Meditation on stress in the body.' Since 1970, hundreds of peer-reviewed research studies have shown the beneficial effects of TM in these and many other areas - including a recent study on mothers in Uganda. (more)

Canada: Entrepreneur Alan Phillips - Transcendental Meditation an 'important tool' in business
2 October 2018 - Alan Phillips is founder and president of Vancouver Institute of Media Arts, which offers vocational training in the visual, media, and performing arts. Ranked #5 worldwide for animation, gaming, and design, the school has attracted top talent from Hollywood for instructors. Alan graduated from Maharishi University of Management, USA, in 1991 with an MBA degree and founded VanArts in 1995. The Transcendental Meditation technique has been an important tool for him as a businessman. 'Running a business can be very stressful,' he says. 'The TM technique has given me an edge to be able to deal with that more effectively and not get so overwhelmed by challenges.' (more)

Canadian Women's Wellness Initiative: Protecting our policewomen
21 June 2018 - Incorporated in February 2017, the Canadian Women's Wellness Initiative [CWWI] - the women's wing of the Transcendental Meditation organisation in Canada - serves women whose jobs, health, and lives are at risk due to chronic or acutely high levels of stress. Recently CWWI partnered with the Central Saanich Police Service near Victoria, British Columbia, to offer training in Transcendental Meditation to their women officers and other area officers. The programme, with benefits including significant reduction of stress and its symptoms, is bearing results quickly. 'Each sitting of meditation is like having a restorative vacation. I have sustained, fresh energy. I feel far more settled . . . . I wish I'd discovered TM years ago.' - Kathleen Thomson, Constable [retired], Saanich Police Department. (more)

Canada: Premeditated move - Rabbi relocating to Iowa to deepen knowledge of Transcendental Meditation
15 June 2018 - Inspired by meditation to seek ordination, Rabbi Alan Green plans to use his Jewish perspectives in the meditation capital of North America. After 18 years as the senior rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Green and his wife Chaya, a meditation teacher, will move this summer to Fairfield, Iowa, USA, home to thousands of practitioners of Transcendental Meditation. 'Basically it will be a context where I can fulfil my dream of Jewish observance and study with the practice of Transcendental Meditation,' says the Los Angeles native, who came to Winnipeg in 1992 and has served at Shaarey Zedek since 2000. (more)

Marjorie Sinal on her 240 mile trek at age 91: Transcendental Meditation is 'an effective and portable tool'
8 June 2018 - When Marjorie Sinal decided to trek the Camino Trail last year, 'it raised a few eyebrows within my family'. The resident of Calgary, Alberta, in Canada was 91 at the time, and the trail, Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James), is a network of ancient pilgrim routes extending across Europe. 'We only hiked 240 miles (386 km),' she says. The walk lasted '19 wonderful days' and included hiking over the Pyrenees mountains. 'I certainly think Transcendental Meditation was a big factor in preparing me and helping me throughout the journey,' Marj says, '--not just my daily meditation during the Camino walk, but the practice of TM that I had done for the many years before. It's an effective and portable tool. It relieves stress and tiredness and improves resilience and renews you twice daily.' (more)

Extinguishing stress in women firefighters
11 January 2018 - The Canadian Women's Wellness Initiative (CWWI) - the women's wing of the Transcendental Meditation organization in Canada - serves women whose jobs, health, and lives are at risk due to chronic and acutely high levels of stress in their professions, including firefighters, police, first responders, and nurses. When the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Fire Fighters launched a mental wellness initiative, many women firefighters in Vancouver learned TM through CWWI, and soon found very clear benefits. 'I have been practising TM for six months now and I am feeling less stress, less anxious, and far less annoyed by the frustrations in day to day life,' reported a fire department captain with 17 years experience. 'I think anyone in the first responders field would benefit from learning and practising Transcendental Meditation.' (more)

Canada: Find a deeper state of happiness through meditation, not medication - TM and recovery from addiction
24 July 2017 - These days comedian Russell Brand is one of many celebrities finding a natural high without drugs and alcohol. 'I'm quite a neurotic thinker, quite an adrenalized person. But after meditation, I feel this beautiful serenity and selfless connection,' he says. A recent article explains that TM provides the 'basic human need to experience one's true nature - a transcendent, non-changing, absolute state of one's own awareness. When we have that connection, we are no longer dependent on outside stimuli, like drugs and alcohol, to effect a euphoria of well-being. We become naturally content - self-satisfied, self-sufficient, and self-motivated from within ourselves.' BeYouPromise.org has partnered with the Victoria, British Columbia, Transcendental Meditation Centre to offer TM to people in recovery. (more)

Profile: Chelsea McCooey, teacher of Transcendental Meditation from Vancouver, Canada
20 April 2016 - Vancouver Real television sat down with Chelsea McCooey, the director of the recently opened Transcendental Meditation centre in Vancouver, Canada. Chelsea was literally born into TM as both her parents were TM meditators, but she had to find her own way in life, which eventually led to valuing the practice of TM. Chelsea rephrases Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who said that if we don't water the root of our existence, we cannot enjoy its fruit. 'So that's why we go within, settle, meditate,' she says, 'to then go out and enjoy life even more.' She relates her journey into TM and life as the centre director, and outlines some advanced programmes in Maharishi technologies available at the centre. (more)

Canada: 1,000 learn Transcendental Meditation
18 July 2013 - Close to 1,000 people learned Transcendental Meditation in Canada in the past year. Three times as many Canadians began the practice compared to three years ago; contributing to the increase has been rising interest in Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes for reducing stress and improving health in cities across the country. In British Columbia, the Victoria School for Ideal Education celebrated its 25th year of offering Consciousness-Based Education to the children of the area. (more)

Canada: Times Colonist features beautiful Salt Spring Island Vastu home
18 April 2013 - Far above the bucolic, yacht-filled harbour and bustle of weekend markets on Salt Spring Island off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, a house sits perched on a rock in the crystalline air, embraced by tall evergreens, mossy outcrops, and a view you'd expect to see in a painting. It's the home of people from the United States who had heard about the friendly island and decided to build a remarkable retirement home there. Based on an ancient form of Indian architecture--called Maharishi Sthapatya Veda, or Vastu--the home is designed to increase occupants' health and happiness. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

'Apocalyptic' scenes as Canadians flee wildfires
18 August 2023 - An official deadline to evacuate Yellowknife as a wildfire looms on its outskirts has lapsed, as residents scramble to leave by air and road. About 22,000 people -- or roughly half the population in Canada's Northwest Territories -- are now displaced in the country's worst fire season on record. A separate blaze in the west, that threatens Kelowna, British Columbia, has grown one hundredfold in 24 hours. (more)

Mercury exposure linked to high youth suicides in Canada First Nation
20 July 2023 - Decades of mercury exposure has been linked to the high youth suicide rates in an Indigenous community in Canada, in the latest finding to underscore the catastrophic legacy of environmental contamination. Researchers who studied three generations of mothers and their children from the community of Grassy Narrows, Ontario, have concluded that sustained exposure to the toxic metal helped cause a suicide rate three times higher than any other First Nations community -- which are already far higher than among the country's general population. (more)

Canadian wildfire smoke puts around 70 million US residents under air quality alerts
17 July 2023 - Canadian wildfire smoke is bringing unhealthy air across the northern tier of the United States to start the week [July 17], triggering air quality alerts for more than a dozen states from Montana to Vermont. ...On Monday [July 17], the plume of smoke stretched across the US like a noxious belt with several states experiencing 'unhealthy' air, which is Level 4 of 6 on the Air Quality Index. Some of the unhealthy air stretched as far south as northern Alabama on Monday morning. (more)

Drug syndicate hid meth in Canadian maple syrup, canola oil bound for Down Under, authorities say
15 June 2023 - A drug syndicate that tried to smuggle tons of methamphetamine from Canada to Australia and New Zealand by hiding it in shipments of maple syrup and canola oil has had its ruse busted, authorities said Thursday [15 June]. Authorities from the three nations say they worked together for more than five months to unravel the elaborate scheme that was worth billions of dollars. (more)

Canada wildfires: US East Coast sees worst air quality in years
11 June 2023 - Washington DC and Philadelphia experienced their worst air quality in years as intense wildfires in Canada continue to impact millions. The poor conditions have forced event cancellations and grounded flights across the US. Data from the US Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality Index (AQI) shows that cities in North America had the worst air quality in the world on Thursday morning [8 June]. Much of the smoke is coming from Quebec, where 150 fires are burning. It is already Quebec's worst fire season on record. (more)

'Out of control' fires burn across Canada as poor air quality expected to persist
7 June 2023 - Hundreds of wildfires are burning across Canada, many of them out of control, have blanketed cities in a thick haze of smoke, amid warnings from experts the situation will continue to worsen. ...The bulk of the smoke in eastern Canada is coming from the province of Quebec, where crews are contending with more than 150 fires, many of which are considered 'out of control'. (more)

Out-of-control wildfires cause evacuations in western Canada
8 May 2023 - Fire crews battled wildfires threatening communities in western Canada on Sunday as cooler temperatures and a bit of rain brought some relief, but officials warned the reprieve came only in some areas. Officials in Alberta said there were 108 active fires in the province ... Two out-of-control wildfires in neighboring British Columbia also caused some people to leave their homes, and officials warned that they expected high winds to cause the blazes to grow bigger in the next few days. (more)

Canada's Hudson Bay polar bear population plummets as climate change warms Arctic
23 December 2022 - Canada's Western Hudson Bay polar bear population has fallen 27 percent in just five years, according to a government report released this week, suggesting climate change is impacting the animals. ...'In some ways, it's totally shocking,' said John Whiteman, chief research scientist at conservation non-profit Polar Bears International. 'What's really sobering is that these kinds of declines are the kind that unless sea ice loss is halted, are predicted to eventually cause ... extinction.' (more)

Thousands of salmon found dead as Canada drought dries out river
5 October 2022 - Tens of thousands of dead wild salmon scattered along a creek bed are the latest casualty of a drought that has gripped the province of British Columbia for more than a month and left communities bracing for more devastation. ... One biologist estimated there were 65,000 dead salmon in the creek bed -- more than 70 percent of which failed to spawn. (more)

First possible case of COVID-19 spreading from deer to humans
4 March 2022 - Scientists in Canada have discovered the first potential case of deer passing coronavirus to a human, according to the new research that hasn't yet been peer-reviewed. The event has raised new concerns that wildlife could host COVID-19 strains that could eventually spill over to humans. ... In their study, the Canadian scientists collected samples from the noses and lymph nodes of hundreds of white-tailed deer hunted in southwestern Ontario last fall. Their analysis revealed that 17 of the 298 deer they tested were positive for a 'new and highly divergent lineage' of the coronavirus, per The Guardian's Leyland Cecco. (more)