My Recent Work

AI and GLAM: Emerging tech is changing museums and libraries - Capital Current

As professionals in galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) debate how emerging technology will change jobs and the preservation of history, some organizations in Ottawa are experimenting with AI to transcribe and digitalize record collections.


Mounting pressure to apply AI tools in GLAM work is making professionals worry about “job obsolescence,” the idea that employers will replace humans with more efficient technology. They’re also trying to balance the ethical risks AI poses to...

Internationally educated nurses are untapped assets in solving nursing shortages - Capital Current

A program announced this year may help foreign-trained nurses get accredited in Canada just in time, as data suggests a nursing shortage is set to worsen.


A recent report by Statistics Canada highlights the challenge: While there are more than half a million people in Canada with foreign training in nursing, “large percentages of immigrant women with a nursing education from a foreign school did not have a health occupation.”


Meanwhile, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) has d...

Crafting combat: How veterans turn memories into models and help ease mental concerns - Capital Current

Paul Bornn has seen his fair share of war machines.


From repairing heavy tankers to driving Cougar armoured vehicles across war zones in combat, the Canadian Forces veteran learned the ins and outs of war rigs and carriers over his decade of service. As a retiree he’s still tinkering with those machines, only on a smaller scale.


His basement is packed with models of vehicles, aircrafts and even spaceships.


“That was my trade,” said Bornn. “I was a weapons tech. I got into tank regiments...

Sacred returns: the repatriation of Indigenous heritage

At the fringes of cultural value and significance, repatriation comes down to property: who owns what, and who has a right to sell it. However, in the matter of Indigenous repatriation, the question becomes one of justice. After all, can an entity like Hudson’s Bay claim ownership over potentially stolen goods?
The context behind how cultural items are removed from their origin is at the centre of the repatriation argument. Without fully understanding how an item was acquired, sourced or catalog...

River guardians make strides in curbing salt pollution ahead of icy winter months - Capital Current

On the cusp of another frigid Ottawa winter, efforts are intensifying to reduce the use of de-icing road salt and prevent its toxic impacts on freshwater ecosystems.


Conservation agencies managing the watersheds of the Ottawa River’s two main tributaries on the Ontario side of the national capital — the Mississippi and Rideau rivers — are planning to impose new restrictions on salt use in the region.


This comes at a time when the Ottawa Riverkeeper advocacy group is stepping up its long-ru...

Supreme Court orders new trial for accused human trafficker - Capital Current

The Supreme Court of Canada overturned the acquittal of an accused human trafficker in a decision on Friday that ordered a new trial.


The court found two lower courts in Nova Scotia had erred in acquitting the man, identified only as T.J.F., who was charged with human trafficking his spouse in Halifax, Edmonton, and Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.


“In a criminal legal system built on the presumption of innocence, acquittals are not set aside lightly,” said the Supreme Court in the 7-2 decision....