Women are going to jail in Canada, especially Indigenous women, because they are unable to pay fines for small infractions. So says the Calgary Elizabeth Fry Society. And once a woman is put into the justice system, she often runs into complications that prevent her getting out.

The situation would be much worse if it weren't for the 24 non-profit Elizabeth Fry Societies, who offer hope, counselling and practical help to women caught up in the justice system. Most of their clients are women and youth who face charges or jail time for petty crimes, crimes of poverty and survival, such as stealing food, public urination, shoplifting, panhandling or soliciting.

This article is part two of "Media literacy in a post-fact age."

Fake news is as old as the Internet. From the 1990s, I remember spam, scams, and ghost ship "rolling" petitions that sailed the white-font-on-black-background PINE and LYNX seas -- almost as soon as the first e-list was compiled.

Spam couldn't easily penetrate Usenet -- the threaded online discussion Bulletin Boards, or BBSes that scientists used before email. When email lists proliferated, however, spamsters found ways to hop on board other people's trains, at open relays.

Mark January 21 on your calendar as the first global women's march, because it probably won't be the last. Women who once used the PTA phone tree to become city councillors now can use social media to mobilize millions in only two or three months -- with staggering results.

"I expected maybe 200 people," said the guy with the big DSLR camera next to me balanced on the concrete planter beside the stairs to Calgary's City Hall. Our cameras were picking out our favourite signs among the sea of pink-capped people rolling towards us, 10 abreast, wave after wave rising along the pedestrian mall, farther back than the eye could see.

With all the manufacturing, management, academic and professional positions disappearing, the public is impatient for the digital economy to produce some real jobs. Uber and Airbnb are often held up as examples of a new "sharing economy," where individuals can earn money by sharing their homes or cars with strangers. Although sharing is not a typical Western society trait, debt is at high levels these days, and renting out a room or a ride may help make ends meet.   

Not long ago historically, on this very continent, the economy was based upon gifts, not salaries. Great leaders on the West Coast invited their communities together for seasonal ceremonies, weddings, births and deaths, and gave away their wealth to all who attended. They gave away names, rank and status, and hunting and fishing rights. They gave away firearms, blankets, canoes, food, or carved cedar boxes. Their power came from sharing, not hoarding -- caring for everyone in the community.

This article is the second in a two-part series on chronic pain and the prescription opioid crisis.  Part one argues that chronic pain is not a given, it's a public health catastrophe. Read it here.

As more and more workers were injured by repetitive motion, and filed complaints, unions like the (US) AFL-CIO negotiated for ergonomic improvements to their workplaces. Some employers recognized that inefficient workplaces caused the workers' injuries.

Among all the stories I've seen about the prescription opioid epidemic, only a few touch briefly and lightly on the major factor driving all the prescriptions -- chronic pain -- before they skip on to recommend better patient and physician education.

Here's a new reason to be proud of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Environmentalists are inviting the courts to look at Section 7's guarantee of life, liberty and security of the person -- and read into that section, recognition of "green rights," the right to a healthy planet. Although Canada and the U.S. are not among the 180 nations that legally recognize environmental rights, their court decisions are already leaning that way. And that, says author and filmmaker Silver Donald Cameron, could be the key to saving the earth, and all our lives. 

Donald Trump's election as President of the United States has caused almost as much grief and consternation as Nelson Mandela’s death did -- more, perhaps, because death is inevitable and Trump's election was, even to his supporters, unexplainable, "a miracle." The day after he won the election, demonstrations bloomed spontaneously in 30 U.S. cities. Ten thousand demonstrators marched in New York, chanting, "We. Reject. The President-Elect." To all but the estimated one-third of the U.S. population that voted for him, Trump’s elevation seems a catastrophe.  "It’s like when your dad dies," said comedian Trevor Noah.