- That’s all folks, the singularity is near. Elon Musk’s cyber pigs and brain computer tech
Thursday, September 3rd 2020
Brain computer technology is at a point where the potential medical implications are so exciting many players are pursuing different approaches to the field. The potential ethics of using this technology are sometimes best explained in science fiction like “Black Mirror” and “The Matrix.” Neurotechnologist Graeme Moffat joins This Matters to discuss the latest in brain computer interface technology. He explains what’s important about Elon Musk’s recent Neuralink presentation where he revealed “Cyber Pigs.”
- The truth behind the racist message in skin “whitening” creams
Wednesday, September 2nd 2020
The multibillion-dollar skin whitening cream industry has until recently bombarded people with images of white skin being more desirable. As the Black Lives Matter movement gained traction in calling out racism around the world, it also pressured top brands to rethink their products. Some experts are worried nothing has really changed. Amina Mire, author of the book “Wellness in Whiteness: Biomedicalization and promotion of Whiteness and Youth Among Women” and an associate professor
at Carleton University talks to This Matters about what we need to know about “rebranded” skin whitening creams. - The sound of cities, and what it says about your health and wealth
Tuesday, September 1st 2020
With COVID-19 quarantine, the air has been cleaner and the streets have an eerie stillness, but the light has never shone brighter on longstanding social, economic and racial inequality in our lives. The concept of noise in a city — and who gets the worst of it — is a direct reflection of those inequities. Matthew Braga, freelance writer on technology, science and culture, recently reported on this very concept: can it be this quiet for good? And quiet for whom? The answers to those questions are tied up in Toronto’s decades-long war against noise and the way it interweaves with class, privilege, race and power in this, and essentially, every city.
- 3.2% of Ontario’s lawyers are Black. Why that’s a problem for law and society
Monday, August 31st 2020
The Law Society of Ontario, which represents more than 55,000 lawyers says only 3.2 percent of Ontario’s lawyers are Black. This is no different from so many industries (including news media) but it still led Ryan Watkins — one of the city’s leading employment law experts — to conduct an analysis of 12 leading law firms of Toronto. He found the firms have more than 1,500 partners listed in Ontario and only 16 — or 1 percent — of them are Black. He speaks to Saba Eitizaz about why there are not enough Black lawyers, what that means for Canada and how we look at justice and the lack of Black representation in civic spaces.
- Who polices the police? SIU under microscope after Regis Korchinski-Paquet report
Friday, August 28th 2020
After the SIU report cleared Toronto police officers of any criminal action, the police oversight organization remains dogged with criticisms by community members, lawyers and academics alike. Justice reporter Alyshah Hasham on the case, police accountability and the informal code of silence among officers known as the “blue wall of silence.”
