Turning the question around is the solution in a new book by Dr. Doug Larson, emeritus professor in the Department of Integrative Biology in the University of Guelph’s College of Biological Science. “Hope is achieved by allowing science to destroy dogma,” says Larson in the cover blurb to The Dogma Ate My Homework.  

Co-authored by his son Nick, the new book is published by Volumes Publishing in Kitchener, Ont.  

The father-and-son writing team urges readers to harness science to confront unquestioned beliefs that prevent people and societies from realizing their potential. That idea is embodied in their volume’s subtitle, framed – suitably, for an ecologist and his engineer son – as a home-made equation: (Science) – (Dogma) = Hope.  

Dogma wielded by authorities is a corruptive and paralyzing influence, said Larson during an interview this fall on campus. But that’s only part of the problem.  

Perhaps the only thing more destructive than manipulative powers, he said, is a human tendency to accept beliefs without challenge. Why would we do that? 

Call it a case of going along to get along – and an aversion to confrontation. 

Someone says something and no one questions it: That’s dogma 

“We’d rather believe things to be true than for them to be true. It makes things more palatable,” said Larson, who taught and studied at U of G from 1975 until retirement in 2009.  

“It’s dogma if someone says something and no one questions it.”   

For instance, he said, there’s an increasingly widespread and angsty sentiment that humanity is collectively decimating our planet through climate change and other factors.  

Human activities are undoubtedly affecting climate, said Larson.  

He points to his early studies of arctic lichens, which occurred well before his headline-generating discovery in the 1990s that ancient dwarf cedars grow on the Niagara Escarpment.  

For those studies, he used an instrument calibrated to ambient atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration of 345 parts per million. Today’s global CO2 average is 420 ppm, a nearly 25-per-cent increase in almost half a century.  

But, said Larson, it’s not true that “we are destroying the planet.” That dogmatic notion suggests that we pose a collective existential threat to Earth’s ecosystems.  

Climate change may play havoc with investments or winter weather or coastal homes and livelihoods. But it doesn’t destroy Earth’s living systems that predate humanity and that will likely outlast us.  

“Climate change and other risks destroy all the things we like,” said Larson. “The phrase, ‘We are destroying the planet’ really says that ‘we like the planet just the way it is.’” 

Rather than simply endorse blanket statements that effectively prompt handwringing but little action, he said, we need to plan for and adapt to climate change – human-made and natural. Similarly, he said, dogma and propaganda about biodiversity loss, infectious disease and the threat of nuclear war wrap the issues in a “wall of fear.” 

Or, to use another metaphor, Larson said, “We swim inside a big ocean of misrepresentation.” 

For these and other concerns, he said, the best strategy is to focus on what we can change.  

Looking past ‘dogma’ of taxes and centralization 

In its signal example, The Dogma Ate My Homework proposes that we stop looking to centralized government to solve problems such as climate change or biodiversity loss.  

Centralized government rests on the dogma of taxation as the primary source of public infrastructure, Larson said.  

Yet governments are caught between relying on tax money to fund infrastructure and their own reluctance to alienate voters with tax increases. Coupled with public ownership of everything from roads to bridges to sewers, what results is a kind of “tragedy of the commons” with crumbling or outdated infrastructure that no one wants to pay to repair.  

Instead, Larson calls for more private investment in infrastructure, such as funding by investors in late nineteenth-century Guelph that paid for construction of an urban railroad system in the city.  

“Governments now own our infrastructure,” he said. Far from the dogma of public ownership and reliance on taxation, Larson added, “Infrastructure is a commodity that people can invest in.”  

The book also discusses why and how dogma works, points to hope as an evolutionary process and outlines how the scientific method helps to counter dogma.  

Larson draws on ideas from such public intellectuals as the American biophysicist Harold Morowitz, who studied thermodynamics and living systems; the American astronomer Frank Drake; the Swedish physician and academic Hans Rosling; and Jacob Bronowski, a mathematician and philosopher who explored humanism and science in a 1973 book and television documentary series called The Ascent of Man. 

As a U of G professor, Larson said, he spent decades teaching students not just about ecology but about the power of dogma and its ill effects. A longtime musician, he wrote and recorded ideas on dogma and critical thinking in a 2015 album called Things That Need to Be Said.  

Contact:  
Doug Larson 
dwlarson@uoguelph.ca 

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 Nearly two decades later, Dominika Jamnicky, B.Sc. ’15, is training for the Americas triathlon championships in Uruguay this fall – with her eye on ultimately qualifying for the Paris Olympics in 2024 – while completing the home stretch of chiropractic studies in Toronto.   

 And in a kind of full circle, she’s now coaching young aspiring triathletes in Guelph’s Royal City Development Squad, founded five years ago with her fiancé, Kyle Boorsma, M.Sc. ’13.   

“I decided I wanted to give back to the community and share my passion for triathlon,” said Jamnicky, who was 11 when her family came to Canada from Australia in 2004.     

She spent her teens running, swimming and cycling in Port Hope, Ont., before arriving at U of G in 2010 to study biomedical science and to join the Gryphon team.    

Today, some 20 area youngsters belong to the growing club, whose members train around town in their signature blue and gold. Recalling her youthful start with the sport, she says training and competing in triathlon gives kids “essential skills for sport and everyday life. The most rewarding part is to see their smiling faces and see them enjoying the sport.”     

Ups and downs of a sport triad 

Those are the kinds of benefits she says she’s gained – mixed in with the inevitable heartbreaks and low moments.   

One highlight came in her first year with the U of G varsity team that won both women’s and men’s national cross-country titles. “That was the moment I knew that the University of Guelph was for me. The camaraderie and friendship among the athletes – I knew I was in the right place,” said Jamnicky.   

 Another high point was being selected to compete for Canada at the 2014 worlds. “Training with the cross-country and track and field teams and having the former national training centre at the University – that all led to being able to represent the country at the world championships in Chicago.”   

After graduation in 2015, she trained full-time for four years and was selected for Canada’s team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, her birth country. Earlier this year, she made her second Commonwealth Games appearance in Birmingham, England.  

Referring to the Australian Games, Jamnicky, 29, said, “That was special. On the sidelines, I had integral parts of my family cheering me on. It was nice to be able to compete there, but it was mostly like a family reunion.”   

One low point came when she was still a student athlete in 2013.   

In Europe that year, she broke her arm in a cycling accident. She wasn’t even competing at the time. “After a race, I went for a training ride,” she said. “I slipped over train tracks going downhill and got ejected from the bike.”  

Back in Guelph, her rehab from that accident and other injuries pointed Jamnicky toward her current career aspirations.

Adversity breeds career prospects for grad  

She says Marco Lozej, then a practitioner at U of G’s Health and Performance Centre, inspired her to pursue chiropractic studies after her biomedical science degree. That degree program is offered jointly by CBS and the Ontario Veterinary College’s Department of Biomedical Sciences. 

Jamnicky is now completing her final year of study at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in Toronto.   

“I think chiropractors have a lot of tools in their toolbox to help people with functional problems, especially injuries,” she said. “My goal is to help people the best I can.”   

She aims to land clinical work in Guelph after graduation. For that, she’ll carry aspects of her university education as well, especially her studies of human anatomy and physiology.    

“I found that the University of Guelph approach to human sciences was ahead of a lot of other schools I looked at, especially with the human anatomy program,” said Jamnicky.   

Referring to the program run by the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences in the College of Biological Science, she said, “It’s one of the only programs in all of Canada that offers human dissection courses on cadavers. It made a difference in my understanding of the human body.”   

Grad aims to qualify for 2024 Olympics  

Now aiming to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games, she trains 15 to 20 hours a week. Her regimen includes regular workouts in the University pool and distance training with the varsity cross-country team.   

Since the Commonwealth Games, she has competed in European races with what she describes as middling results. Next up in late October were the Americas championships in Uruguay, where she was aiming for a top-five finish.     

“My recent European trip was not quite what I had prepared for, but that’s racing – there are ups and downs,” said Jamnicky, whose specialty in her sport triad is cycling.   

She said she relies upon a strong support system, including Boorsma. A former decorated Gryphon runner, Boorsma completed graduate studies in nutrition, exercise and metabolism, and is now an assistant coach with the varsity track team.  

“A good team makes a world of difference,” said Jamnicky. “No athlete’s trajectory is a smooth trajectory. It depends on how you’re able to work through the downs. Having a support system is huge, it helps you put things into perspective and work through challenges.”   

In turn, that’s partly her goal for the kids training with her development squad – and for adult runners now training with Boorsma in a new offshoot of the club.   

“With the national training centre shut down, we’re trying to fill that void and bring high-performance training in triathlon back to Guelph,” she said. 

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Dozens of threatened, endangered and at-risk plants and animals are found across Canada, and two University of Guelph grads are playing a small but important role in ensuring they have a future.  

Ian Adams and Robyn Rumney work for the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada as Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) coordinators. From their respective bases in Cranbrook, B.C., and Midland, Ont., they identify potential areas for future protection. 

A global initiative spearheaded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and BirdLife International, KBAs contain important wildlife and biodiversity. Potential protected areas must go through several stages of local, national and international review before being designated.  

“A KBA in Canada is a KBA in Ghana is a KBA in New Zealand,” said Adams. “It’s part of a global set of criteria so that it’s reliable and that regardless of where you are in the world, you know that it has reached certain levels in terms of global or national significance.”   

But that doesn’t mean the area is necessarily protected. Rather, KBAs are “strictly an information layer,” Adams explains.  

He, Rumney and other KBA coordinators across Canada gather and prepare data for groups to indicate an area’s ecological value. What those groups do next is up to them, says Adams, but they may choose to protect the space, via an Indigenous protected area or a provincial or a national park, or to simply manage it in a way that conserves its integrity.   

That work hinges on data they access from various sources including various levels of government and apps like eBird and iNaturalist. With that information, Adams and Rumney can approach local naturalists, biologists, Indigenous communities and other stakeholders with their own knowledge of an area.   

For instance, the Ojibway Prairie Complex and Greater Park Ecosystem, near Windsor, Ont., is well on its way to being nominated for designation as a KBA. The proposal is being co-developed with the nonprofit Wildlife Preservation Canada, which has biologists working on-site. They hope it could one day become a future national urban park, which could help protect the many rare and at-risk species at the site. 

It’s an effort, Rumney says, “to maximize the impact of KBAs on protecting species and ecosystems,” ultimately tying it back to one of the greater goals of her and her colleagues’ project. 

A celebration of past and future accomplishments  

While their project maps potential KBAs, it “also celebrates areas that already have successful protection,” says Rumney, pointing to Long Point, Ont., or Trial Islands in B.C., which was Canada’s first KBA.  

Both those sites and future KBAs highlight and advocate for at-risk species listed on COSEWIC (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada), NatureServe, the IUCN Red List and more. 

Take Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi’it, also known as Tobacco Plains, in B.C., where you might find Spalding’s campion, one of the rarest plants in Canada. Designating the area as a KBA, with the help of the Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi’it of the Ktunaxa Nation, can help raise awareness of the plant’s open forest ecosystem and rarity, says Adams.  

“We know there’s a whole bunch of KBAs out there, and we haven’t scratched the surface yet,” he adds. “They’re ongoing, living documents that are a launching pad for ecology and conservation education.”  

He and Rumney are well-versed in the process thanks to their studies at U of G.  

U of G leads in ecology, conservation  

Despite now being at different points in their careers, Adams and Rumney chose to study at U of G for similar reasons. One was the beauty of the campus, and the other was the University’s reputation in environmental sciences – something both say helped set them up for where they are now.  

For Rumney, that came through the blend of theory and application in her bachelor of science in environmental sciences (at the Ontario Agricultural College) from 2012 to 2016. For Adams, it came during classes with Dr. Vernon Thomas, now professor emeritus, during wildlife biology studies (at the College of Biological Science) from 1985 to 1989.   

“He really pushed a lot of people to consider the political side of things,” says Adams, who later completed a master’s degree in wildlife ecology in 1995. 

Their current work connects them to U of G, too.  

“A lot of the names that come up on the research papers as experts to consult are University of Guelph faculty or lab managers,” says Rumney, adding that she recently spoke with an expert who is using U of G’s DNA barcoding technology for their own project.  

Adams remembers people thinking “you’re really going to do that?” when Dr. Paul Hebert, a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and director of the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, pitched the idea for this species identification technology. But, he adds, “it’s been wonderfully successful.”  

“I’ve done eDNA projects in B.C., including one of the first where we identified streams and watersheds where the Rocky Mountain tailed frog occurs,” he said. “The ability to just extract DNA from water, from soil, from air… it’s just remarkable.”  

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Ever since he was a child, David Borish wanted to tell stories about ecosystem and community health, and now thanks to his studies at the University of Guelph, he is doing just that.

A documentary film he directed and produced for his PhD is debuting this fall at festivals and screenings – including one hosted by U of G’s Guelph Institute of Development Studies (GIDS).  

HERD: Inuit Voices on Caribou documents Inuit communities in the Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut regions of Labrador as they grapple with changes brought on by a total hunting ban, implemented in 2013, on caribou – an animal with which they hold social, emotional and cultural connections.  

But the film is more than just a platform for Inuit to tell their stories. It’s also the raw data of Borish’s PhD dissertation, completed in 2021.   

“Usually, people use documentary film to communicate research, not do the research themselves,” he says. “But you can actually use the film as the data.” 

With that in mind, Borish set out to create a new technique called video-based qualitative analysis to promote knowledge mobilization. He repurposed two video editing programs, Final Cut Pro and Lumberjack Builder, to look for common themes in not just what people said but also their tone, body language and location. 

Collaborative process connects Inuit communities  

“I wasn’t extracting the words from the participants, I was keeping it connected,” he said. 

Throughout his undergrad degree at U of G in international development studies, Borish did photography on the side. During his third year, he combined his hobby and his studies to create a documentary film on tiger conservation, sustainable development and Indigenous communities in Malaysia. 

By his fourth year, he felt supported by U of G’s strength in socio-environmental studies, and reached out to Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo, now at Memorial University in Newfoundland, after she spoke during a class. 

Cunsolo was then working with Labrador communities on research in health and well-being, including Inuit communities who were exploring the idea of creating a documentary to illustrate the effects of the then four-year-old hunting ban on caribou.  

“Yes, it was my PhD work, but it was something that was led by Inuit, and I happened to be at the right place to help,” said Borish, now a post-doctoral researcher at Memorial University while also working with the Torngat Secretariat. 

The film has been public only since August, but is already available to audiences on CBC Gem, and communities across Labrador have watched it through screenings. After more than five years of community collaboration, Borish and the Caribou Project Steering Committee are excited to share their work.  

And for broader audiences, Borish hopes the film “provides them a glimpse into what life is like in Labrador, and how important these connections between people and caribou are,” and offers a chance “to think about the continued changes to people’s mental health, culture, identity and food security. All these things are so interconnected as biodiversity loss occurs.” 

To learn more or to host a screening, visit the HERD website, or check out their social media @inuitvoicesherd.  

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As Dr. Cliff Redford prepares to take his veterinary skills into a war zone, the thing he’s most worried about is crying.

The owner of a veterinary clinic in Markham, Ont., and graduate of the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) will volunteer in Poland in late March and early April at refugee shelters near the Ukrainian border.

He and his daughter, Emily, will work with the ADA Foundation – a charity shelter in Poland – and with DIOZ, both organizations tending pets of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Redford – known as “Dr. Cliff” – said, “I know how quickly I cry when things become emotional. Anytime I talk about my daughter and my pride in her, or if I see a kid crying…. I’m sure I’ll be falling asleep crying a few times.”

He plans to spend two weeks in Poland, including potential forays into Ukraine as far as Lviv to retrieve injured and traumatized animals.

After he announced his plan in mid-March, donations of money and medical supplies began pouring into Wellington Veterinary Hospital, which he has owned since 2000. By St. Patrick’s Day, a GoFundMe campaign had raised $5,000 for travel costs and another $10,000 to buy an animal ambulance for DIOZ.

Redford expected to raise another $10,000 before leaving for Poland on March 21.

His plans drew widespread media interest, including Global News and CTVNews.  

He said several local animal rescue groups have also volunteered to take in patients if Redford manages to arrange their transport by the time he returns to Canada. “If we arrive with 50 animals at Pearson Airport, there will be a slew of cars to drive them to rescues in the York area.”

As of March 21, more than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began in late February.

Redford said hearing about the plight of many refugees and their pets – and the challenges faced by veterinarians in Poland – stirred him to action. 

“It was stressing me out, I was feeling anxious and upset and wished I could do more.”

He talked with colleagues who urged him to act on his feelings.

“Although I’m still feeling a lot of stress, it’s a different stress. I’m feeling so much better. It’s only going to be a bit of help in the grand scheme of things, but a little bit of help is a decent thing.”

Beginning with animal rescue groups in Jamaica in 2016, Redford has volunteered abroad in several countries, including Greece, Egypt and Panama. He volunteers weekly at a local wildlife refuge.

Emily, who is training to become a veterinary technician, has accompanied him on several assignments.

“She’s better at a lot of things than I am. We’ve never gone to a country neighbouring a country at war.”

From animals suffering from hunger and dehydration to pets with burns and broken bones, he said, “I expect there are going to be a lot of trauma cases.”

Redford completed his DVM in 1998.

He said attending veterinary school at U of G equipped him for tackling challenges of all kinds.

“Going to vet school and graduating with a DVM grants you a very specific set of skills that allow you to analyze problems and find solutions. It allows you to ‘MacGyver’ up solutions with limited materials, teaches you to keep calm when problems occur, and then it gives you a polite, loving push out the door into practice.

“It teaches you very quickly to sink or swim. If you can swim, what a great life this is.”

He credits biomedical sciences professor Dr. Peter Conlon, OVC associate dean of students, with providing open-door advice and encouragement during his studies.

“Those were the greatest times of my life,” said Redford. “I love the place.”

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From retracing the footsteps of the Franklin expedition in Canada’s Arctic to taking part in cocaine drug busts in the Caribbean, Lisa Tubb had her share of memorable moments during her first-ever deployment with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in fall 2021.

It was a voyage of firsts for Tubb, who grew up in landlocked Mitchell, Ont., before studying history at the equally landlocked U of G beginning in 2012.

Last year, besides marking her first-time crossing of the Arctic Circle en route to sailing through the Northwest Passage during the maiden voyage of the HMCS Harry DeWolf, she notched her inaugural circumnavigation of North America. This was the second RCN ship to sail around the continent.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime deployment,” said Tubb. Now 27 and beginning her fourth year with the Navy as a public affairs officer, she is back in Ottawa on the issues management and operation desk.

But she hopes to get out on the water again soon. “I like to think the best is yet to come.”

What she calls her inaugural “adventure” started in early August when she travelled to Iqualuit in Nunavut. There she met the vessel with its crew of about 80 people.

“We were introducing a new class of arctic and offshore patrol ship to Canada’s Northern regions,” said Tubb, whose job was to publicize the voyage with Canadians through social media, video and photos.

She had been on the ship for just over a week when she was charged with helping a CBC television crew headed by Peter Mansbridge to film a documentary of the Arctic. Tubb also led production of the Navy’s own documentary about the voyage called Into the North.

As part of Operation NANOOK, Canada’s signature Arctic exercise that included Canadian and American Coast Guard vessels, the ship visited Indigenous communities, including Pond Inlet and Cambridge Bay. Tubb helped run ship tours for community members.

Retracing the Franklin expedition’s footsteps

“We’re there to serve Canadians, to conduct presence patrols in the Arctic, and to fortify our close partnerships with federal, territorial and local communities.”

Each of the new class of ships is affiliated with various Inuit communities. For HMCS Harry DeWolf, that was the Qikiqtani region of Nunavut.

One moment during the ship’s passage through the Arctic archipelago resonated with her U of G history studies.

Referring to Sir John Franklin’s mid-1800s attempt to find the Northwest Passage, she said, “We traced Franklin’s footsteps.”

She and others visited barren, wind-swept Beechey Island, where three members of the Franklin expedition were buried. Recalling the bleak surroundings and a hike over difficult terrain, she said, “You start to appreciate what those men went through. You can’t help feeling helpless for their situation, after struggling up that mountain, feeling the brittle rocks crack beneath your feet – their wintering place could not sustain them.”

After negotiating the Arctic, the ship continued down the western flank of North America to the Caribbean. There, the crew worked again with U.S. Coast Guard partners on Operation CARIBBE to counter illicit drug trafficking.

Conducting drug busts in Caribbean

The team apprehended two small vessels transporting a total of more than 2,500 kilograms of contraband cocaine. Observing the activity from the deck of the patrol vessel, Tubb kept busy recording everything she could to tell the story later – and even donned gloves to help remove the narcotics from the boats.

“As the public affairs officer, I’m there on the bridge, taking notes, using my GoPro camera, hearing the voices of my friends crackling over the radio – and in the second event, seeing it unravel quite close by. I was up there with the guys the entire time.

“My operations officer had to tell me to take care of myself, to go to bed. I didn’t want to miss a minute.” 

Once through the Panama Canal, the ship headed up the Eastern Seaboard and docked in Halifax in early December.

“I joined the military because I wanted a challenge,” said Tubb, whose basic training as well as French-language lessons and public affairs training occurred between 2018 and 2020. “The idea of service was already in the background.”

Her dad is the fire station chief back in Mitchell. Several relatives in her grandparents’ generation served during the Second World War; one great-uncle was in the Navy during the Korean War.

“Giving back to the community was something that really called me.”

Attending U of G sharpened her focus.

“The whole idea to join the Forces started at Guelph,” said Tubb. One summer she worked with history professor Dr. Catharine Wilson on her Rural Diary Archive project, which helped develop her interest in personal accounts of history and led her to explore Canadian military stories especially.

Self-discovery at U of G

Her U of G days also helped her learn about herself.

“I found out more about who I was as a person, my interests and values,” said Tubb. “Stories of the military and heroes motivated me to push myself. I wanted to continue my study and storytelling of Canadian heroes.”

She ended up pursuing a personal project to investigate all the names inscribed on the cenotaph in her hometown, and she published a Historical Guelph article about her research on HMCS Guelph, a Second World War vessel.

On campus, she served as an orientation volunteer, worked for Hospitality Services and played on the University quidditch team that competed in nationals in Victoria. “Whenever I see Johnston Hall, Johnston Green and the Portico, I always picture it with quidditch in the background.”

After graduating in 2016, she completed a master’s degree at the University of Waterloo, studying the lives of workers at a wartime munitions factory in Ajax, Ont.

For last year’s deployment, she took along a Guelph Gryphons flag that found good use after one American naval officer flashed his own varsity colours. “I couldn’t let that go unanswered, I had to show the Gryphon off,” Tubb laughed.

“Our coxswain had said we could consider bringing something from home. The first thing I thought of was my U of G flag. It’s come with me to Victoria, to basic training – it’s my good luck charm.” 

She lives in Ottawa with her partner, Christine McPhail, who studied nutrition at U of G for her undergraduate and master’s degrees.

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Providing safe and inclusive workplaces for women in skilled trades is the goal of a project led by a U of G grad and launched this past year by a national coalition.

We Are Trades, a guide for employers to improve their workplace environment and culture for women, may also help address a projected labour shortage in male-dominated skilled trades, said Bonnie (Speed) Douglas, B.Eng. ’02.

She led the three-year initiative as a project manager with the Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology (CCWESTT) based in Renfrew, Ont.

Established in 1992, the non-profit coalition of individual members and groups advocates for diversity and inclusion in the science, engineering, trades and technology workforce.

“Women are grossly underrepresented in skilled trades,” said Douglas, speaking from her home office in London, Ont. Over the past two decades, the proportion of women in Canadian skilled trades has remained at around six per cent, even as women make up about half of the overall workforce.

She said the COVID-19 pandemic has increased unemployment for women, even as skilled trades need more workers including carpenters, plumbers, welders, machinists, millwrights, heavy equipment operators and electricians.

“There is a projected labour shortage in skilled trades in the next decade,” said Douglas. “One solution would be to recruit from underrepresented groups. Women make up the largest available talent pool.

“We hope to move the needle forward for women.”

We Are Trades guide aims to improve workplaces for women

Following two years of consultations with tradeswomen, employers and other groups, CCWESTT introduced its We Are Trades guide in fall 2021.

“We wanted to understand what employers need to make meaningful change,” said Douglas.

“Employers have a general awareness that this is a valuable thing to do. They known they should do something, but they don’t know where to start.”

Three areas in the guide discuss how to develop a strategy for hiring and retaining more women; how to institute equipment, practices and behaviours to improve inclusion; and how to measure progress. Besides sharing the resources with employers, CCWESTT members have discussed its findings at workshops and conferences.

Douglas points to employers that address common concerns, including provision of PPE and workwear; appropriate washrooms and changing facilities; action on harassment and bullying; and accommodating parental and maternal leave.

She has heard that the guide has encouraged plant managers, for example, to check inappropriate language. Elsewhere, companies have installed unisex washrooms or facilities to support breastfeeding in the workplace. “Some organizations do great work.”

She said CCWESTT is also promoting its guide with educational institutions. “We’re talking with schools and other organizations that help find jobs for women and directing employers to the We Are Trades guide. We’re asking them to look at it and see what changes they can make.” 

Next, Douglas plans to widen the project to include other kinds of workplaces in science, engineering, trades and technology. “Trades have the greatest disparity, so we started there, but there are a lot of similarities with other areas.”

At U of G, she studied biological engineering and minored in food engineering.

During her almost 20-year career in food manufacturing, she honed skills in project management, change management and continuous improvement. She joined CCWESTT three years ago to lead the We Are Trades project.

She aimed for sciences in Grade 9 after attending a Girls in Engineering event. Arriving at U of G’s engineering school in 1997, she encountered a nearly even mix of women and men students.

That parity was unusual for engineering schools, she said. “Others I work with now had a different experience.”

Douglas’s parents met on campus as students: Grant Speed, Dip. ’73, and Jean Curtis, who studied science at U of G in 1971 before enrolling in teacher’s college. Her grandfather, Donald Rutherford, graduated from the Kemptville Agricultural College in 1948 before completing studies in animal husbandry at the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) in 1951.

A recipient of the Order of OAC, Rutherford was the namesake of the D.M. Rutherford Family Conservatory and Gardens on campus.      

Referring to her early interest in food engineering, Douglas said, “I had some encouragement to pursue Guelph. The University had a food specialty and a family connection.”  

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U of G grad Marcie Jacklin received the 2021 Canadian Wildlife Federation’s (CWF) Stan Hodgkiss Outdoorsperson of the Year Award for organizing local bird counts and calling for preservation of natural areas around Fort Erie, Ont.

More generally, she said, the award reflects her decades’ worth of environmental advocacy and citizen science with various organizations in the Niagara Region and beyond.

“It’s hard to describe the feeling,” said Jacklin, B.Sc. ’78, who was nominated for the honour by friends and colleagues. “I couldn’t believe I got nominated. Then to have won a national level award was unbelievable for me.”

Named for the CWF’s founding president, the Outdoorsperson of the Year Award has been presented every year to a Canadian who has demonstrated an enduring commitment to conservation.

As president of Community Voices of Fort Erie, Jacklin leads a residents group opposing development of Waverley Woods. The mix of wetland and woodland, including old-growth forest, is part of the last intact Carolinian forest in the area.

With some trees dating back to the War of 1812, the area is home to various creatures, including the endangered red-headed woodpecker and Fowler’s toad. The community group has appealed a municipal decision to allow development to proceed.

Jacklin was among the first members of the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre at Brock University, where she was a long-time librarian. She retired four years ago.

She has led boards of regional conservation organizations, including the Niagara Falls Nature Club, Peninsular Field Naturalists, Buffalo Ornithological Society and Ontario Field Ornithologists.

Currently, she is the Niagara regional coordinator for the third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. Birds have been her special passion for three decades, she said.

“I participate in just about every bird survey there is in Niagara,” including Christmas bird counts and a fall count with the Buffalo group.

For birders, accurate numbers matter.

As of mid-February, Jacklin had spotted a cumulative 328 bird species for the Niagara region. She’s notched 395 species in Ontario and 2,698 worldwide. Her sightings are recorded both in her own boxes of field notes at home and in the eBird public database at Cornell University.

Birding has taken her across Canada and abroad. Among her highlights, she spotted a long-whiskered owlet, a tiny owl found only in a small area of the Andes in northern Peru. In Ghana, she recorded an “ancient-looking” white-necked rockfowl.

Jacklin started birding in Ottawa after-hours from her job in a genetics lab at Carleton University.

After pursuing a master’s degree in library and information sciences, she switched careers. She wound up working at the Brock University library; she and her husband moved to Fort Erie 12 years ago.

She had hoped to study wildlife biology at the University of Guelph but pursued genetics instead. Jacklin said her outdoors award takes her back to that original passion, nurtured partly during childhood summers spent at her grandparents’ lodge in Parry Sound, Ont.

Referring to the Stan Hodgkiss award, she said, “I’ve kind of come full circle with this.”

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Cody Sorensen, 35, competed with his team in the four-man bobsleigh competition on the final weekend of the Olympics. They placed ninth overall with a time of three minutes, 56 seconds and 99 milliseconds. Germany’s team piloted by Francesco Friedrich won gold with a time of three minutes, 54 seconds and 30 milliseconds.

Mirela “Mimi” Rahneva, 33, competed in the women’s skeleton and just missed a medal, placing fifth overall in a career best. She started with the fastest time in the event, but the combined time from her runs totalled four minutes 9.15 seconds. The gold medal went to Hannah Neise of Germany whose times totalled four minutes 07.62 seconds.

Former U of G student Mikkel Aagaard, 26, was a “practice player” for the Danish men’s hockey team. Denmark, Aagaard’s home country, placed seventh, after losing to the Russian Olympic Committee with a score of 3-1 in the quarter finals. 

Dustin McCrank, 37, officiated the men’s hockey tournament as a linesman.  

Sorensen slides into the top ten

While hurdling with the Gryphons men’s track and field team, Sorensen studied management, economics and finance at U of G from 2004 to 2008. The three-time national medallist in the men’s 60 metres played a key role during his final season.   

At an open identification camp hosted by Bobsleigh Canada at York University, Sorensen found four-man bobsleigh to be “a good fit for his natural abilities as a bigger sprinter who was quick out of the blocks.”   

He served as an alternate for the Canadian men’s team at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. He says he was fortunate to “officially” become an Olympian in 2014 in Sochi, when he slid with Justin Kripps, Jesse Lumsden and Ben Coakwell.   

“That was a dream come true for me and it’s a surreal feeling to be able to come back to the Olympics after almost eight years off,” Sorensen, from Ottawa, said.    

He joined team pilot Chris Spring (with whom he slid at the 2013 World Cup), Mike Evelyn and Samuel Giguere at the National Sliding Centre from Feb. 19-20.  

“It will all come down to the push for us in four-man,” Sorensen said about the competition prior to the event. “We know Spring can drive and we have the sled to be fast. I’d say that we are an outside threat for a medal, and we expect to be in the mix after Day 1.”  

Rahneva now a two-time Olympian

While studying tourism management at U of G between 2006 and 2010, Mirela Rahneva, from Ottawa, played on the Gryphons women’s rugby team, during which she became a three-time Ontario University Athletics (OUA) champion and a four-time Canadian Interuniversity Sports (now U-Sports) bronze medallist.   

After graduating, she played for the Canadian national sevens rugby team. Inspired by Heather Moyse’s switch from rugby to bobsleigh, Rahneva tried bobsleigh but was too small and was encouraged to try skeleton in 2012.   

She began competing the following year. She has achieved six podium finishes at the World Cup and bronze at games in Germany and Switzerland during the 2021-22 season. Despite finishing 12^th in her Olympic debut at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, she “has become a fixture on the international circuit for skeleton.”   

Women’s skeleton at the Beijing Olympics was held Feb. 11-12 at the National Sliding Centre.   

Aagaard competed as a ‘practice player’  

Before studying accounting at U of G, Mikkel Aagaard, from Frederikshavn, Denmark, played in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Juniors and World Cup tournaments. 

He served as the team captain of the Gryphons men’s hockey team during the 2019-20 season before he was offered the chance to go pro, ending his studies at U of G. Aagaard, then the OUA’s top scorer with 63 points in 42 games, signed a contract with MoDo, a professional Swedish hockey team.  

At his first Olympics, Aagaard was a “practice player” for the Danish men’s hockey team. He and the other practice players ensured optimal training conditions and would compete in lieu of a player who tested positive for COVID before the tournament. 

McCrank one of three Canadian hockey officials  

Recruited to U of G by the men’s hockey team for his rookie year (2006-07), Dustin McCrank competed for the Gryphons track and field team in weight throw throughout his five years of studies.   

He won gold in 2009-10 and silver in both 2008-09 and 2010-11 in weight throw, during which time he also played on the men’s rugby team (2009-11).   

After graduating with an honours degree in anthropology, the three-time All-Canadian champion coached U of G’s weight throw team in 2014 and 2015.  

Originally from Haileybury, Ont., McCrank began officiating in 2006 with the Ontario Hockey Association, where he supervised two Queen’s Cup games. Starting in 2008 with the Ontario Hockey League, he conducted six league finals. In 2015, he began his extensive career with both the American Hockey League and the ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League), for which he officiated many final championship and series games, including the Canadian Hockey League/National Hockey League Top Prospects Game played in Guelph in January 2018.   

From Feb. 9 to 20, McCrank officiated the men’s hockey tournament in Beijing as a linesman, along with two Canadian referees, at the National Indoor Stadium and the Wukesong Sports Centre. 

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And for many of those newly minted explorers in southern Ontario, University of Guelph grad Nicola Ross, B.Sc. ’81, has been the de facto guide to near-urban trail systems through her bestselling Loops & Lattes series of hiking guidebooks.

As of early February, Ross had sold almost 45,000 copies of her self-published regional hiking guides. During the past 18 months alone, she saw sales nearly double in the smaller, independent bookstores that she deliberately targets instead of the large corporate chains.

Her most recent volume published in 2020 is a guide to the Collingwood area – her sixth book since 2015, when she issued her inaugural guide to her own hometown Caledon environs.

All six books have been written, designed, marketed and even delivered in person by what the Kitchener-Waterloo Record this year called a “grassroots celebrity.”

Ross ascribes her recent success to a combination of savvy marketing, a lifetime’s worth of writing and editing, and a love for the environment and the outdoors nurtured partly during her biology undergraduate at U of G.

More recently, she said, more area trail explorers have been seeking an outlet for cabin fever triggered by pandemic lockdowns.

“A lot of people are out there walking who never walked before – to the chagrin of some people who find the trails a bit crowded,” she said. “At the same time, it’s great to see so many people getting out.”

To judge by her sales, many of those hikers are toting copies of her guidebooks on their jaunts. The portable volumes provide detailed explanations of routes, complete with numerous full-colour photos and Ross’s hand-drawn maps that point out natural and cultural landmarks.

Crediting a friend with the idea of loop trails, she said, “People like going in circles. It’s logistically easier to start and finish at the same point.”

As for the other half of the brand, she added, “on some hikes, you can actually get a latte right on the route – isn’t that cool?” For each excursion, users can refer to her listings of restaurants, cafes and coffeehouses along the way.

Growing up on her parents’ 90-acre hobby farm on the Credit River in Caledon, Ross spent time exploring the property and competing in equestrian events. She came to U of G aiming to become a veterinarian.

Her plans changed with the requisite assignment for entering vet school.

“We had to write an essay on: What have been your successes and failures in life and why do you want become a veterinarian? Being a bit cocky, I had no problem with the successes, but I suffered a bit on the failures.”

Instead, she ultimately used the writing and thinking skills developed in her classes as an environmental consultant and as a freelance writer.

Her career stints included publishing an environmental newsletter for oil and forestry industries in Western Canada, consulting on climate change issues worldwide, writing on the environment for newspapers and magazines, and authoring several regional coffee table books in southern Ontario. (Writing is a family affair for Ross: several journalist relatives wrote and edited for the Globe and Mail, and an in-law has been an administrator in Humber College’s journalism program.)

For her birthday in 2013, her partner gave her a life-altering gift: he offered to pay her basic expenses for two years so she could write a book – any book.

It took her six months to zero in on the idea of a hiking guide.

She printed 3,000 copies of her inaugural Caledon guide – a risky gamble that eventually paid for itself. The volume is still selling: “It’s like an Energizer Bunny.”

Since then, she has covered Collingwood, Dufferin, Halton, Hamilton and “Waterloo, Wellington and Guelph.” That last volume, released in fall 2019, has sold about 8,000 copies.

Quoted about “Waterloo, Wellington and Guelph” this year in The Record, David Worsley, co-owner of Words Worth Books in Waterloo, said “it’s a cinch that it’s the bestselling book of the last 15 years.” 

At the Bookshelf in Guelph, Barb Minette said, “In 2020 it was our best-selling book by far and is in our top 10 for 2021. These guidebooks are beautifully designed and not only that – they are faithfully detailed. I know because I have used them.”

Besides continuing to revise her existing books, Ross plans more volumes, including guides of trail routes in Niagara and north of Toronto as well as the eastern end of the province. For now, she’s focusing on completing a book about her own hiking experiences that she hopes to publish in 2023.

Pandemic or not, she figures she’s tapped into a growing green movement with her pocket guides.

She recalls working years ago for a not-for-profit group called the Caledon Countryside Alliance. “When I ran the CCA hiking group, I realized how few people knew the local community or landscape. When you’re hiking, you see the countryside from the inside out. When you’re driving, you’re looking into it rather than being in it.

“I realized that when people hiked, they started to appreciate the general environment in a way more heartfelt way than they ever had before.” 

Contrasting her current venture with the environmental newsletter she published early in her career, Ross said, “I’m convinced these little hiking guides do more for fostering environmental knowledge. I don’t get into the doom and gloom. People constantly send me notes. They like knowing where to go for coffee.”

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