The Pulse: May 16, 2025

Jill Kowalchuk, the manager of artificial intelligence literacy for the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, said preparing students for a future job market shaped by AI requires teaching AI literacy, not just technical skills.

"The same can be said of learning a language or of learning any skill," Kowalchuk told Taproot. "It's easier to pick it up when you're younger than for us older folks."

Her work will be a central pillar at the fourth annual Upper Bound conference, which runs from May 20 to 23 at the Edmonton Convention Centre, where a guiding theme this year will be AI literacy and education.

Kowalchuk, a former junior-high teacher who programmed the AI Literacy and Education track at the conference, spearheaded Amii's K-12 AI Literacy program that has been used by 50,000 students and teachers. The program includes a kit for teachers and students, plus access to coaching, guest speakers, and field trips.

But while the Amii literacy program has tutorials on how to operate tools, Kowalchuk said AI literacy is about how one should operate them. "AI literacy is not just becoming accustomed to using a particular AI tool," she said. "(My work) speaks to ethics. It speaks to the societal impacts of artificial intelligence, and being able to not only use a tool, but collaborate with that tool in an effective and meaningful way to support skill development."

Kowalchuk said employers will increasingly expect the people they hire to not only know how to use AI, but also how to use it ethically.

"There's a safety piece," she said. "Being able to demonstrate that you can, in fact, use it responsibly and ethically within your particular industry context is important. That also involves critical thinking alongside artificial intelligence, and being able to have the baseline technical understanding of the AI so that you can make professional judgments and informed decisions around your use of it."

The ethics of AI use are already increasingly challenging established ideas of academic integrity at post-secondary schools in Canada, where many of the next generation of workers are preparing for life after school. In Calgary, one professor told CTV that 10% of papers she graded last semester contained "obvious" AI plagiarism.

Kowalchuk said the definition of plagiarism itself will need to change with the technology.

"We can't think about plagiarism in the ways that we traditionally did in education, because AI presents new challenges," she said. "I think it is fundamentally shifting the way that we think about assessment. It's less of a question of, 'How do we catch these kids cheating?' (and instead) 'How do we better create or craft assessment strategies to actually support student learning?'"

• NAIT announced it will pause 18 of its programs due to concerns about operational and financial sustainability, which will affect about 450 students and 100 staff. The paused programs are across the school, but eight are in the School of Media and Information Technology. The announcement was made May 15, but staff were only informed of the changes on May 14. The news was "absolutely shocking," said Shauna MacDonald with the NAIT Academic Staff Association.
• The Africa Centre presented a revised business case for a long-delayed multicultural community centre to Edmonton city council's executive committee. The centre is planning a $54-million facility on the site of the former Wellington Junior High School in the Athlone neighbourhood, which would include event spaces, a gymnasium, and low-income housing. The committee recommended that council negotiate a $1 land deal with the centre, contingent on an updated funding model, letters of support from Black-led organizations, and plans for governance and capital funding.
• The City of Edmonton is opening some spray parks on May 17, with the rest set to open June 6. The City has a total of 78 spray parks, including a new one in the Schonsee neighbourhood. Information about spray park hours can be found on the City's website.
• The UCP and the Alberta NDP have each nominated candidates for a by-election in the provincial riding of Edmonton-Ellerslie, prompted when MLA Rod Loyola resigned to run in the federal election. The UCP nominated Naresh Bhardwaj, and the NDP nominated Gurtej Singh Brar. A date for the by-election has not been announced, but provincial rules require it to be called before Sept. 24.
• Spruce Avenue School, a junior high school in the Spruce Avenue neighbourhood built in 1928, will be demolished to make way for a new school. The existing building, with a 450-student capacity, will be replaced with a building for 605 students with more flexible learning spaces, said Kim Holotawuk with Edmonton Public Schools. The project is expected to start next March and be completed by January 2028.
• The football field at Commonwealth Stadium has officially been renamed as Play Alberta Field, after Alberta's online regulated gambling platform Play Alberta. In a release, the Edmonton Elks said the field's naming rights are part of a multi-year agreement with Play Alberta. City council approved the name sale agreement for the field in early February.
• Const. Dylan Awid of the Edmonton Police Service was reprimanded this week for a 2019 incident where he shoved a handcuffed man's head into a brick wall. Awid admitted to unlawful exercise of authority when he tried to subdue the driver of a stolen vehicle. A retired RCMP chief superintendent who presided over the hearing accepted an agreement for a "restorative approach" rather than suspension without pay, calling it a "case of poor judgment and a spontaneous reaction."
• The Edmonton Police Service said in a new report that 525 of the 712 criminal flight incidents in 2024 lasted one minute or less. These incidents are treated as high-risk situations, similar to hostage scenarios or armed suspect calls, said interim chief of police Warren Driechel. There were 71 "long-chase events" lasting more than 15 minutes, and 115 that involved an EPS helicopter, Postmedia reported.
• Edmonton Global is inviting companies to participate in a trade mission to Houston from Oct. 7 to 9, which will include meetings with people in the energy sector, industry group engagement, and efforts to foster stronger ties between the cities.
• APTN News spoke to Indigenous leaders, academics, and lawyers about the UCP government's encouragement of separatism. Treaties 6, 7, and 8 make Indigenous people partners rather than subjects of Alberta, and they represent the greatest obstacle to the legitimacy of separation, said University of Alberta professor Matthew Wildcat, noting Indigenous and non-Indigenous people often have different understandings of the Treaties. Multiple First Nations have adamantly opposed UCP legislation related to sovereignty, including Onion Lake Cree Nation, which is demanding the government respond to a 2022 lawsuit. The UCP said it would amend proposed legislation to ensure no separation referendum could threaten Treaty rights, which critics said "means nothing."

Each time Simone Atenea Medina Polo flies out of the Edmonton International Airport, she orders a Patron margarita at the Chili's Grill & Bar after getting through security.

She's one of the thousands of people who make their way through security each day at the airport — travellers excited for an adventure, nervous about a fresh start in a new place, or relieved that they're finally getting a much-needed vacation. What each has in common is that their first view after the frazzle of baggage checks and metal detectors is the Chili's, which beckons during its open hours from 4am to midnight, seven days a week.

That airport Chili's is the latest obsession of Medina Polo, an academic and experimental pop artist who performs under the moniker pseudo-antigone. Medina Polo is now seeking interviews with people who have stories about the restaurant for a short book.

"I think focusing on the mundane and the very simple things, like how something as insignificant as the Chili's somehow becomes elevated to the dignity of subject matter to be studied — I think there's something fun and goofy and playful about doing that," Medina Polo told Taproot.

The airport Chili's has always been a part of Medina Polo's personal lore. But after posting a poll on her Instagram stories, which asked her followers if they ever thought about the Edmonton airport Chili's, she decided to start a project on it — three-quarters of respondents said yes. She then brought up the idea to Craig Martell, who reviews Edmonton fast food on his Instagram account Brotherhood of Plates. Martell shared her fascination. She then asked Omar Mouallem, partly because of his documentary about Burger Baron, The Lebanese Burger Mafia.

"When I told Omar that I was chatting with Craig and that Craig was thinking about this, Omar said something along the lines of, 'Yeah, if Craig is talking about it, it's a thing,'" Medina Polo said. "I kind of got my confirmations that there's something here."

Medina Polo said there are two main elements behind a fascination with the airport Chili's. First, Chili's are alluringly scarce in Alberta — there are only five in the province since the chain scaled back in 2017. The remaining restaurants include two each in the Calgary and Edmonton airports (a sit-down restaurant and express kiosk) and a restaurant in Banff. A prospective diner requires either a plane ticket or a national parks pass to access the coveted margaritas and quesadillas.

"Because we're lacking it, we want it. There's this kind of pay-wall, this inaccessibility to the Chili's that makes us have this, like, active pursuit of it," Medina Polo said. "It's something unconventional, and still conventional enough that it's familiar."

Additionally, the restaurant's location in a prominent spot in the airport means it is woven into transitional moments in people's lives. She describes the restaurant as "a liminal space... it's the element of a transitional, in-between space, between things. It's almost like being in purgatory or limbo."

She said her first interviewee for the project associated the restaurant with coming into adulthood and finally being able to afford plane travel. That person later moved to New Zealand, and each time he left Edmonton after a visit home, he went to the airport Chili's. "There's this element of the ritualistic relationship that people have to it," Medina Polo said. "You have to go through security to get there, you have to have a flight, you have to go almost through a rite of passage to be able to enter this sacred space."

Here are some events happening this long weekend in the Edmonton area.

• May 16: Orcas: Our Shared Future Opening Day starting at 10am at Royal Alberta Museum
• May 16: The Carrot Friday Nite Live presents Westmore starting at 7pm at Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse
• May 17: Bird Walk and Talk starting at 8am at Devon Lions Society Campground
• May 17: UX Camp 2025 starting at 9am at Allard Hall
• May 17: Reuse Centre Swap Event: Small Appliances starting at 10am at City of Edmonton Reuse Centre
• May 17: Elks Fan Day starting at 10am at Emerald Hills Sports Pavilion
• May 17: Spring Kick off starting at 11am at Beaumont and District Agricultural Society Fairgrounds
• May 17: Book Signing: Sophie Gareau-Brennan starting at 11am at Audreys Books
• May 17: Movies on the Square starting at 11am at City Hall Plaza
• May 17: The Purple Tie Foundation Royal Gala starting at 5:30pm at Star Edmonton Banquet & Conference Centre
• May 18: Morinville Farmers' Market starting at 11am at Morinville Rendez Vous Centre
• May 18: Period Positivity Workshop starting at 1pm at Ritchie Community Hall

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

• May 22: What's on your mind, municipally speaking? at Edmonton Public Library (Stanley A. Milner)
• May 22-June 8: KALDRSAGA: a new queer, old norse cabaret at ArtsHub Ortona
• May 25: Heart of the City Bike Tour at Government House Park

Visit the beta version of the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.