The Current for Nov. 2, 2021
Today on The Current:
A University of Saskatchewan academic is on leave without pay after colleagues questioned her claims to Indigenous identity. Matt Galloway discusses the story and others like it with Raven Sinclair, a professor of social work at the University of Regina who is Cree, Assiniboine, Saulteaux and Métis from the George Gordon First Nation; and Veldon Coburn, an assistant professor at the Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies at the University of Ottawa. He is Anishinaabe and a member of the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation.
Plus, Suzanne Simard has spent a lifetime trying to understand the secret societies of trees — how they work together, help each other and even how they speak to one another. Simard is a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia. She tells us about her work, what it means for old-growth forests amid a climate emergency and her new book Finding the Mother Tree.
Then, proposed legislation in Ontario would mean the right to disconnect once your workday ends — no more late-night emails or texts. We talk to Marta Liddiard, who stepped away from her sales job earlier this year over the pressure to be available at all hours; and discuss how the law might actually work with behaviour change expert Lisa Bélanger and labour and employment lawyer James Fu.
And what does Facebook's name change to Meta really signal? We ask Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.