March 16, 2021
As students begin returning to the classroom as the pandemic eases, schools are bracing for an onslaught of serious mental health conditions that, for some students, may take years to overcome.
In the year that campuses were closed due to Covid-19, students experienced waves of loneliness, fear, upheaval and grief. Some lost loved ones, others saw their parents lose their jobs and their families sink into poverty. Nearly all experienced a degree of depression from being apart from their friends and missing important milestones like proms, graduations and being on campus as college freshmen. Even students who thrived with distance learning endured periods of frustration and sadness.
Senate gender parity suggests women are beginning to break through the glass ceiling in Canadian politics. Canada’s Senate chamber is seen in this photo. Flickr
At the end of 2020, Canada quietly reached a milestone: our first-ever gender-equal house of Parliament, the Senate.
Sen. Frances Lankin noted in December that there were 47 women and 47 men in the Senate.
But given the Senate’s institutional structure, the high number of women legislators generally allows for a strong representation of women’s interests in the upper house which is why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should make strides to return it to gender parity with his next Senate appointments.