The Pulse: Sept. 28, 2022

Alberta Innovates will be hosting its first virtual symposium on medical cannabis and psychedelic research on Oct. 26.

The symposium will showcase ongoing cannabis research projects that have been funded by Alberta Innovates, and give researchers, industry, and other interested parties a chance to share knowledge and look ahead to the future of the field. The deadline to register is noon on Sept. 30.

"I've had many industry folks ask, 'Are you doing anything in psychedelic research?' because that's a hot area, too," said Sunil Rajput, director of research for Alberta Innovates. "There are a variety of cannabis companies that are in the market right now as well as emerging psychedelic companies. So this is a place to try to understand what's happening in this space."

Included in the list of presenters is Leah Mayo, a human behavioural pharmacologist who was recently named the University of Calgary's first Parker Psychedelic Research Chair. Researchers from the mCannabis program will present on pre-clinical studies involving cannabis and pain, and members of the mCannabis.Realworld team are presenting on the use of real-world data to understand safe and effective cannabis use and how it can influence policy decisions.

Rajput said the focus is on cannabis use and pain specifically because pain is one of the leading causes of morbidity and disability on a global scale. One in five Canadians lives with chronic pain. With the related crisis in opioid poisonings, he said there is also an incentive to develop alternatives to existing pain management drugs.

Psychedelic research is still "very nascent," Rajput remarked, comparing it to the early days of cannabis studies. "There's a lot of interest when it comes to companies trying to start up and trying to get into this space, but there's very little evidence around psychedelic use."

• City council's community and public services committee heard from more than a dozen people on Sept. 27 who called on councillors to ensure their housing challenges and experiences are reflected in the city's updated affordable housing strategy. "Many of these stories were heart-wrenching, they were raw, and they reflected the realities of thousands of Edmontonians," Mayor Amarjeet Sohi wrote in a blog post published after the meeting. "I am extremely grateful to the courageous folks who showed up as their most authentic and vulnerable selves today."
• Homeward Trust is conducting another homeless count on Wednesday night through to Thursday to collect point-in-time data about how many people are living on the streets. The Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness said it will have volunteers on the streets as well, offering a handbill with the message "1 is too many" and information about the housing crisis in Edmonton.
• Alberta Health Services announced that five more ambulances are now in service in Edmonton, along with 20 new paramedics, to help address pressure on EMS, which has seen 911 call volume increase 30% since before the pandemic. The ambulances are in addition to the five that went into service in June 2022. The president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, a union of 200,000 healthcare staff, called the additions a "drop in the bucket" compared to what's needed. "We started this week in Alberta with more than 500 paramedic shifts unstaffed," he said. "We need people."
• Witnesses to the fatal LRT collision between a cyclist and a train on Sept. 26 told the media that the man was a passenger trying to board and that they heard him screaming for help moments before the train started moving. Steve Bradshaw, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 569 which represents ETS staff, said the LRT operator was not at fault and suggested additional safety technology is needed to prevent similar incidents in the future. "There are whistles and bells and alarms that tell people the end is coming. We need to have those kind of things on our LRT system as well," he said.
• The province has made changes to the driver's license system so that Albertans are automatically eligible for a Class 5 or Class 6 license two years after earning their probationary Class 5 (or GDL) license. The requirement to complete a road test and pay $150 has been eliminated. The government estimates around 700,000 Albertans currently drive with a GDL, 500,000 of whom can now graduate. "It's not reducing safety," said Transportation Minister Prasad Panda, because new drivers still undergo the two-year probation period that "should sort out if there are any issues" related to traffic violations and impaired driving.
• Canada Basketball announced that the fifth window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Americas Qualifiers will be held at the Edmonton EXPO Centre in November. The Canada men's national basketball team, currently the only undefeated team in the Americas, will host Venezuela on Nov. 10 and Panama on Nov. 13.
• Jay Woodcroft, head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, was named the most handsome NHL coach for 2022 by the staff of gambling.com, who used a "beauty measurement app." Woodcroft, aged 46, is a standout of the "silver fox club," which also includes Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames.

The TransAlta Tri Leisure Centre celebrates its 20th anniversary on Oct. 1 with high hopes of continuing to recover from the pandemic, helped in part by an increase in funding from the three municipalities that support it.

Revenues are "not quite back to our pre-COVID level, but we're certainly on our way," general manager Lenny Richer told Spruce Grove city council during a budget presentation on Sept. 26. "We're busier, we've got more staff back in the building, for sure."

The facility, located on the western edge of Spruce Grove, is jointly funded by the City of Spruce Grove, the Town of Stony Plain, and Parkland County. The joint corporation that runs the centre is asking that the municipalities contribute $3.16 million in 2023, up from $2.36 million in 2022, largely due to increased capital and infrastructure needs.

The centre is forecasting cost recovery of 73.17% in 2023, lower than the 77.95% achieved in 2019 but far higher than the pandemic years, which saw cost recovery plummet by more than 20 percentage points. Operating expenses for 2023 are expected to top $8 million.

The Tri Leisure Centre has found some creative ways to fund upgrades — for example, it is working with the Parkland Pirates aquatic club to provide a new headwall and starting blocks in the pool for racing, Richer said. And since the beginning, the facility has earned revenue from sponsorships, including the title sponsorship from TransAlta, while Edmonton is just now exploring naming rights for its arenas.

On this day in 1949, funds were being raised to support Edmonton's O'Connell Institute, in a campaign that painted it in much more positive terms than many of its inhabitants experienced.

The institute was one of the many organizations supported by Edmonton's Community Chest, a fund started in 1941 to support social agencies in the city. The newspaper photo of the institution described it as a "sanctuary" for "orphaned or neglected children," showing an idyllic scene of young girls on a playground beside the well-kept building. However, many of those who stayed at the O'Connell Institute carry memories of abuse and trauma from their time living there.

The O'Connell Institute — later known as the Mapleridge Residential Treatment Centre for Girls — began in 1929. The Forest Hills mansion, built on the southern bank of the North Saskatchewan, was purchased for $25,000 by well-known philanthropist James Daniel O'Connell. He donated the building to Edmonton's Roman Catholic archdiocese, where it was turned into an orphanage to be run by the nuns from the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity.

While originally set up as an orphanage, the O'Connell Institute would also house children considered "neglected" by the government, including many Indigenous kids who were separated from their parents. It's hard to tell how many young girls spent time at the institution over the years. Official sources put the building's capacity at either 90 or 120 occupants over the years, with personal accounts going as high as 200 at a time.

While the orphanage often portrayed itself as a safe place for girls with no other home, many survivors of the institution tell stories of racism, sexual abuse, and harsh punishments. During Pope Francis's visit to apologize for the church's role in residential schools, Sherry Mitchell told Global News about her mother's time at the orphanage. The girl had been dropped off by her young Métis mother, who asked the nuns to care for the baby until she could raise the child herself. When Mitchell's grandmother returned, feeling able to care for her daughter, she was told the girl was no longer there and had potentially died. In fact, Mitchell's mother was still at O'Connell, where she would spend the next 16 years being told she had been "thrown away" by her mother.

Survivors have described O'Connell as more of a prison than a sanctuary. They talk about being separated from their parents and spending years locked in the building for minor infractions such as skipping school. Beatings and choking were often used as punishments, as was a form of solitary confinement. Elder Taz Bouchier, who spent a year there in the 1970s when it was known as Mapleridge, said escape attempts were common, as were brutal punishments after the girls were recaptured.

There have been some attempts to shine a light on the abuses that happened at the O'Connell Institute. In 1998, three Métis sisters who were taken from their parents and dropped off at the orphanage sued the Alberta government and three nuns. Their suit alleged humiliation, physical beatings, and forced starvation. However, the traumatic history of the institution still remains largely unexamined.

Some futile attempts were made to get O'Connell/Mapleridge recognized as part of the federal government's Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. While the institution is now closed, the building still remains, as does the trauma of those who faced abuse within its walls. This week, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation recognizes the shameful history of Canada's residential schools program as well as the lasting impacts it has left on the survivors and their families.

This is based on a clipping found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse — follow @VintageEdmonton for daily ephemera via Twitter.