Project description: Already there is substantial body of literature which addresses the impact of U.S. drug laws on incarceration.  Much less has been written on the issue in Canada.  As penal institutions, parole officers, and police “toughen up” their responses to drug infractions, it is crucial that Canadians know how drug laws affect incarceration practices and re-offending.

 Research would be both quantitative (statistical) and qualitative (literature and/or interviews), addressing the following questions:

The collective at frigo needs to know more about its suppliers and natural food distribution more generally. Unlike other retailers, the frigo does not purchase or sell based on price.

The Trans Health Network (THN) is a coalition of groups who have come together to fight for better access to health care services for transgender, transsexual and gender-variant people in Montreal and throughout Quebec. The network has been together for around five years and currently includes Project 10, Stella, Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Québec (ASSTTeQ), and the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy.

The THN exists within a long history of organizing for improved access to health care and social services, decent working conditions (in particular for sex workers) and housing, HIV prevention, and an overall greater quality of life for trans people in Quebec. This history, however, has all too often been ignored by more recent efforts to address these issues. This research project would help to shed light on some of this history, in part by reviewing historical research and documentation in this area.

 
Project Description:  This research involves health mapping based on the model of the New Brunswick Climate Change HUB and Lung Association, where a member of the SDC has been hired by the NB Lung Association to direct the mapping since 1999.  This analysis is combined on a Geographic Information System GIS with Green Mapping and First Nation Heritage mapping in regions across Quebec to create multiple interactive interdisciplinary layers for understanding human and environmental health. The SDC-CDD is working with health and environmental organizations across Quebec to help citizens understand health determinants.

Description of final product:  The final product will involve web-design, an analysis of relational economy, the creation of a time-bank, and a community human resource Catalogue. Students will be working on teams with health organizations, organizing committees and networks across Quebec to research, compile and express environmental-health data provincially or in regions.  Interdisciplinary data is usually organized on Excel files before transfer into GIS formats, formatted into interactive Web software formats and communicated with a broad range of partners.  We are primarily mapping positive health lifestyle patterns and choices at home and in community.