Town and Country Exploring Urban and Rural Issues in New

Town and Country
Exploring Urban and Rural Issues in New
Brunswick
Inaugural Conference of the
New Brunswick and Atlantic Studies Research and Development
Centre
June 22-23, 2007
St. Thomas University
Conference Abstracts
ALLAIN, Greg
Session 2
Département de sociologie
Université de Moncton
Friday, 12:15pm
BMH 101
CHIASSON, Guy
Professeur de science politique
Université du Québec en Outaouais
La compétitivité interurbaine à l'intérieur d'une aire métropolitaine de recensement en pleine expansion: élites
urbaines, stratégies différentielles de développement et gouvernance municipale comparée à Dieppe et Moncton
La compétitivité interurbaine à l'intérieur d'une aire métropolitaine de recensement en pleine expansion: élites urbaines, stratégies
différentielles de développement et gouvernance municipale comparée à Dieppe et Moncton. Recherche qualitative basée sur l'analyse de la
couverture médiatique récente et d'entrevues en profondeur avec des acteurs clés, élus municipaux et entrepreneurs acadiens et anglophones.
ANDREW, Sheila
Session 3
History Department
St. Thomas University
Friday, 1:45pm
BMH 101
Image and the Urbanization of Acadian Medicine
This paper analyses advertisements and health advice in the Moncton Daily Times and the Shediac based MoniteurAcadien in 1883 and 1888,
with some comparative analysis of Quebec’s Courier du Canada and Montreal’s La Minerve. Analysis shows there were similarities, but also
differences, in the way drug companies and doctors approached their target markets through these papers. This reflects the change in life-style
of the newly urbanized Acadians as compared with Moncton’s Anglophones and the French Canadian readers of the other papers.
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BEAUDIN, Maurice
Session 5A
Professeur d’économie
Campus de Shippagan, Université de Moncton
Saturday, 10:45am
BMH 101
Effets structurels et migratoires dans les Maritimes : vers une plus grande dichotomie rurale-urbaine ?
Le territoire couvrant les trois provinces maritimes du Canada est considéré comme périphérique dans le contexte canadien. On y compte un
peu moins de 2 millions d’habitants dont 58 % résident dans l’une ou l’autre des treize agglomérations urbaines (centres de 10 000 et plus).
Tout comme ces dernières, les espaces semi-ruraux sont en pleine transition au plan économique. La fabrique industrielle en région s’estompe
au rythme de la contraction du capital-ressources. On assiste à des flux migratoires prononcés entre les zones dites rurales et quelques centres
urbains. Pour autant, le niveau d’emploi semble se maintenir dans les régions rurales, ce qui n’empêche pas les écarts socioéconomiques de
s’élargir entre ces dernières et les zones urbaines. Un tel constat interpelle à plusieurs niveaux. Est-ce qu’on assiste à une véritable
diversification économique en région qui compenserait largement les emplois éliminés dans les secteurs traditionnels ? Est-ce que les centres
urbains se dynamisent au profit de leur hinterland rural, et dans quelle mesure les espaces ruraux peuvent-ils capitaliser sur ce nouveau
dynamisme? Quel rôle jouent les flux migratoires dans cette reconfiguration de l’espace Maritimes ?
CASEY, Hillary
Session 1B
Fourth Year Student
St. Thomas University
Friday, 10:00am
BMH 102
Education in Rural New Brunswick 1: Communities in Schools
Rural public education programs in New Brunswick require different kinds of support than urban programs. This presentation will review the
ways a community-schools model can fund and support rural high-school programs. Building partnerships with non-profit organizations or
businesses, sharing resources, and creating a community trust fund all establish a link between community economic development and
educational opportunities for the school. The presentation places our subject, Cambridge-Narrows School, in a national context. This rural K12 school in Queens County, New Brunswick is slated to lose its high-school program in September 2007 due to changing demographics.
Local high-school students may be bussed out of their community to larger suburban schools, accelerating the process of rural depopulation,
and fragmenting the community in other ways as well. Once Cambridge-Narrows, and the school, are viewed in larger contexts, however,
viable means both of funding and of enhancing the high-school program do exist. Just outside the school’s walls the population thrives and
grows on the strengths of the local watersheds. Seasonal residents and day tourists augment the growing and aging demographic of the yearround residents. This presentation, based on two years of primary and secondary research, will address the following questions: How can the
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school and the community achieve results greater then the sum of their parts? And how can education fit in the process of rural community
planning and development in New Brunswick?
CREELMAN, David
Session 4A
Department of Humanities and Languages
University of New Brunswick Saint John
Saturday, 9:20am
BMH 101
There’s Worse Places to Be: The Rural Urban Divide in the Post-War Fiction of New Brunswick
In the second half of the twentieth century, writers across the Maritime region have been aware of the increased migration of rural inhabitants
to urban spaces. Like their fellow writers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick writers of fiction have recorded the decline of the rural world with a
sense of anxiety marked sometimes by a sense of nostalgia for the pastoral setting and sometimes by an anger that the traditional world is in
decline. Unlike novels in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick texts have not demonized the urban environments which have emerged. While such
Nova Scotian writers as Hugh MacLennan, Ernest Buckler, Carol Ann Bruneau, and Lynn Coady have been consistent in their attack on
Halifax as threatening industrial, government, and economic centre which constitutes a dehumanizing space, New Brunswick fiction writers
such as Alden Nowlan, Robert Gibbs, David Adams Richards, France Daigle, and George Elliott Clarke have been nuanced in their attack. In
New Brunswick, no single urban space has emerged as the locus of control across all aspects of provincial life. While Saint John, and to a
lesser degree Moncton, have been represented as industrial and economic sectors, Fredericton has long been the centre of political and
ideological control, and indeed the city’s name functions provincially as a metonym for “the government”. While New Brunswick writers have
been consistent in their attacks on Fredericton, and represent the city as an elitist, colonial, rigid, and even racist space, the less overtly political
cities are represented in less negative terms. Bob Gibbs, David Adams Richards, and Alden Nowlan have all represented Saint John as a
restorative and even protective environment in which characters can seek a reprieve from the instabilities of their lives elsewhere in the region.
France Daigle represents the Acadian renaissance in Moncton in near idyllic terms. When New Brunswick writers examine critically the rural
urban divide in the local context, they perceive those who exercise political or ideological power as most responsible for the cultural alienation
in late twentieth century. Apparently those who exercise the more benign levels of economic and industrial power are less culpable.
ELDER, Jo-Anne
Session 4A
Department of Romance Languages
St. Thomas University
Saturday, 9:00am
BMH 101
Reading the Others: How New Brunswick Anglophones View the Space of Acadians and First Nation Cultures
In this paper, I will be taking a multidisciplinary approach to some of the intercultural models at work in New Brunswick. I will be looking at a
corpus of short and longer works that have been written by Acadian and First Nations authors n English or that have been translated from
French, Wolastoqew and Mi’kmaq languages into English; the corpus includes both writing that can be qualified as literary, and popular or
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administrative writing about the source culture and space. My look at this intercultural body of work will focus on the naming of urban and
rural space and on the naming of people(s) of these three linguistic and cultural groups in the province’s dominant and minoritized languages.
The dynamics of toponymy, demographics, the educational system, official languages policy, federal and provincial funding, efforts to preserve
First Nations languages, and the attitude towards translation (both administrative and literary) in New Brunswick, among many other factors,
come into play in this polysystems view of intercultural relations. In addition, the role of individual “crossovers” or intercultural agents will be
discussed from the broader context of social and cultural considerations.
FLEMING, Michael
Session 6A
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
St. Thomas University
Saturday, 1:30pm
BMH 101
Strait Talk about Freight Ferries: A Critical Political Economic Analysis of Intermodal Transportation in New
Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador
Transportation to and from Newfoundland has never been easy. The Cabot Strait – a narrow channel between Cape Breton and Newfoundland
and Labrador – has been an important freight transportation corridor for over 100 years. Indeed, Section 33 of Newfoundland’s Terms of
Union with Canada constitutionally guarantees the maintenance of vessels on the Strait, a service currently provided by Marine Atlantic.
Inclement weather, cost overruns and unreliable equipment, however, have plagued this crossing since its inception. To lessen the impact of
these difficulties on the trucking industry, ‘drop-trailer’ operations, whereby freight is delivered by truck drivers to the ferry terminals and these
trailers are subsequently loaded onto waiting vessels by ferry staff to be picked up by drivers at the end of the crossing, have become the
standard for Cabot Strait crossings. This system has greatly reduced truck driver downtime, increased profitability, and arguably improved
quality of service. Two contemporary developments, however, are poised to undermine this system and dramatically change the freight
transportation landscape in Atlantic Canada: i) a proposed freight ferry operating between Belledune, NB and Corner Brook, NL and ii) an
official recommendation that Marine Atlantic stop ‘drop-trailer’ operations. This research will critically assess the motives and strategies
behind these proposed transformations, their potential pitfalls, and the impact of this restructuring on the New Brunswick and Newfoundland
and Labrador trucking industries respectively.
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GUIGNARD, Josée
Session 5A
Maîtrise en études de l’environnement
Université de Moncton
Saturday, 11:05am
BMH 101
Les migrants francophones de l’écosystème rural du nord du Nouveau-Brunswick dans l’écosystème urbain de
Moncton-Dieppe : réseaux sociaux et vitalité ethnolinguistique
L’épuisement des ressources naturelles dans les régions rurales du nord du Nouveau-Brunswick entraîne des conséquences économiques
instables (Desjardins, 2002). Le manque d’emploi incite la population des comtés ruraux à migrer vers les comtés urbains où l’économie est
plus diversifiée, dynamique et innovante (Beaudin et Landry, 2003). Quelles sont les conséquences de cette migration sur les réseaux sociaux?
Le but de cette étude est de comprendre comment s’intègre les migrants francophones du nord du Nouveau-Brunswick dans le territoire urbain
de Moncton-Dieppe, milieu majoritairement anglophone. En plus d’une revue de littérature sur les impacts de la migration des populations
provenant d’un territoire majoritairement francophone vers un territoire majoritairement anglophone, un questionnaire fermé et un groupe de
discussion ont servi d’outils de cueillette de l’information.
HERSEY, Corrine
Session 3
Doctoral Candidate, Interdisciplinary
University of New Brunswick
Friday, 2:05pm
BMH 101
Fighting Childhood Obesity in Rural Communities Through Government Legislated School Nutrition Policies
In 2004, 25% of Canadian children aged two to 17 were overweight and 8% obese. Second only to Newfoundland-Labrador., New Brunswick
has the highest number of obese children. These children are in greater danger of developing obesity-related diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes,
and those in rural communities are at higher risk than their urban counterparts. Even though New Brunswick adopted a school nutrition policy
in 1991, replacing it in 2005, studies indicate that childhood obesity has continued to grow. Although the policy does not discriminate against
rural schools, it does not acknowledge that grades K-8 may be housed together and that those living in rural areas have unique challenges. This
research will identify and describe: i) the multiple activities of key actors as they interface with policies that organize their day-to-day lives and
their ability to respond to school nutrition policy expectations; ii) how these key actors assimilate the sociocultural, political, economic and
environmental realities of their day-to-day lives with school nutrition policy expectations; and iii) sociocultural, political, historical and
economic influences on policy makers’ ability to respond to key actors’ realities in the development of school nutrition policies.
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HODGINS, Marilyn J.
Session 3
Faculty of Nursing
University of New Brunswick
Friday, 2:25pm
BMH 101
Accessing Care for Less-Urgent Health Problems in Rural and Urban Communities
The Canadian Institute of Health Information reported more than half of emergency department (ED) visits are for less-urgent or non- urgent
health problems. Such visits are frequently portrayed as inappropriate. What is unclear is why people with such problems seek treatment at the
ED given media reports of crowded conditions and long wait times. Factors affecting New Brunswickers’ response to less-urgent problems
were examined using a convenience sample of 1,612 people who sought treatment at one of four EDs (two in urban and two in rural
communities). Structured interviews were conducted while people waited for treatment and in a telephone follow-up. In most cases, the ED
visit was not the first action taken. Almost three-quarters had attempted to self-treat using over-the- counter products or home remedies.
Decisions to access the ED were primarily prompted by concerns about the problem and a perceived lack of options. During the follow-up
interview, 26% reported problems accessing immediate treatment for minor health problems. Differences were evident in the factors
influencing New Brunswickers’ response to less-urgent health problems based on the EDs location. Understanding how people make decisions
about the treatment of less-urgent health problems is important for tailoring services to meet this need.
HOLTMANN, Cathy
Session 5B
Departments of Religious Studies and Education
St. Thomas University
Saturday, 11:05am
BMH 102
Resistance is Beautiful: The Emergence of the Catholic Network for Women’s Equality in New Brunswick
The presentation will highlight the changes in Catholic women’s identity that led to the emergence of a resistance movement in the Diocese of
Saint John, New Brunswick. I interviewed women who are active in the local chapter of the Catholic Network for Women’s Equality. Their
identities evolved as a result of reflection on their experiences in church and society. All of the women have a high level of involvement in the
Catholic church and most have theological training. Liberal Christian theology requires critical reflection on religious beliefs in relation to
contemporary society. The women believe in the equality of all persons, particularly the marginalized, and have come to an awareness that the
Catholic church discriminates against them, and women globally, solely because of their gender. Their identities are also influenced by their
participation in secular society and social justice movements. They have experienced their rights as equal persons under civil law and, as
women of privilege, have advocated for the rights of others. They cannot reconcile the experience of working for equality in society with the
inequality in the Catholic church. They choose to continue to identify themselves as Catholic and collectively speak out against the sexism of
their church, because faith has been central to their feminist consciousness.
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JENKINS, Jane
Session 6B
Science & Technology Studies Programme
St. Thomas University
Saturday, 1:30pm
BMH 102
“Perfect Food” or “White Poison”? The Naturalizing Myth and Milk Pasteurization in Early 20th-Century New
Brunswick.
In 1917, prominent St. John, New Brunswick physician W.F. Roberts, ran for a seat in the provincial legislature with the explicit goal of
establishing a provincial Department of Health. Upon election, he immediately set upon his task of instituting public health reform and built up
a long list of accomplishments over the next eight years.
A key part of Roberts’ vision to improve the health of New Brunswickers focused on the regulation and pasteurization of milk. By 1923 he had
successfully lobbied the municipal government of St. John to require milk for sale in that city to be either pasteurized or certified as pure.
Seeking re-election in 1925, Roberts hoped that his past successes along with his expertise in bacteriology would garner support for his
campaign proposal to require milk pasteurization province-wide.
But it was “the milk problem” that led directly to Roberts’ defeat. The “problem” of milk was, ironically, that it was deemed both an important,
indeed a perfect food, while also carrying a deadly cargo of diseases. My project traces the flow of milk from cow to pasteurizing plant to
consumer and therefore, spans research interests in rural agriculture, technology, and science and medicine. Drawing upon the body of
scholarship in cultural studies addressed to the rhetoric of the natural, I examine how vocabularies of the natural are used by groups (both in
early 20th-century and current debates) engaged in both the appropriation and promotion of techno-scientific transformations of milk (as safer,
purer, more natural) as well as by those who reject such an industrialized image of milk (as dangerous and unhealthy).
LANDRY, Michelle
Session 4B
Doctoral Candidate, Regional Development
Université du Québec a Rimouski
Saturday, 9:20am
BMH 102
Disparités rurales-urbaines : l’organisation du territoire, encore le talon d’Achille du N.-B?
Les milieux ruraux du Nouveau-Brunswick ont la particularité d’être majoritairement non constitués. Les réformes de l’organisation du
territoire des années 1960 mises en place sous le gouvernement Robichaud avaient pour but de réduire les disparités entre les milieux ruraux et
les milieux urbains et, conséquemment, entre les anglophones et la minorité acadienne. Pour y arriver, les gouvernements de comtés ont été
abolis et des districts de services locaux (DSL) ont été créés là où aucun village ou ville n’était constitué afin de mieux gérer la prestation de
services. Les Acadiens sont proportionnellement plus nombreux que les anglophones à habiter des régions non métropolitaines, ainsi que des
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DSL. En soutenant que les milieux ruraux sont toujours marginalisés et que les municipalités jouent un rôle plus grand que la simple prestation
de services durs, peut-on aujourd’hui parler d’un effet pervers du programme Chances égales pour tous? Chose certaine, il y a lieu de se
demander si les populations rurales laissées sans gouvernance locale formalisée sont toujours défavorisées en matière de possibilité de
développement, quarante ans après la réalisation de Chances égales pour tous. C’est une hypothèse à vérifier et nous ne prétendrons pas y
répondre, mais nous tenterons humblement de baliser le cadre d’analyse.
LAVORGNA, Koral
Session 6B
Doctoral Candidate, History Department
University of New Brunswick
Saturday, 1:50pm
BMH 102
Taking His French Leave: William Scarr and Bankruptcy in the Fredericton Building Trade
The last quarter of the nineteenth century was marked by considerable activity in the Fredericton building trade. William Scarr emerged as one
of the most prolific builders of the period, and his career demonstrates that while work in the industry could be brisk, financial success was not
guaranteed. The local building trade experienced local boom and bust cycles, the fluctuations resulting from the cost and availability of
materials and labour. Building contracts for most public buildings were competitively based and offered through the practice of public
advertised tender. The financial risks for the builder under a system which awarded contracts to the lowest tenderer were obvious given the
seasonal uncertainty of the building industry. For public building contracts, William Scarr operated under the competitive tender system, but
he charted a different course in house building. Scarr engaged in speculative building, a rare practice in the Fredericton building industry,
constructing houses without specific buyers in mind. Scarr combined the practices of competitive tendering and speculative building to his
financial detriment, and his bankruptcy exposes the risks inherent in the local building trade while providing valuable insight into this neglected
field of study.
LEBLANC, Matthieu
Session 2
Département de traduction et des langues
Université de Moncton
Friday, 12 :35pm
BMH 101
La place du français et des francophones dans un milieu de travail bilingue de Moncton
Si tous s’entendent pour dire que les francophones de la région du Grand Moncton ont, au cours des 30 dernières années, réalisé d’énormes
progrès tant sur les plans économique et social que linguistique, qu’en est-il de la place du français dans les milieux de travail de cette ville
bilingue? D’abord, dans quelle mesure les compétences bilingues des francophones leur ont-ils permis de se tailler une place dans certains
milieux de travail? Plus précisément, comment s’effectue la coexistence des langues et des locuteurs dans un milieu de travail officiellement
bilingue? Quelle place le français au travail occupe-t-il dans les faits? Y a-t-il distribution inégale des ressources symboliques et matérielles?
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Et, surtout, quel est le rôle de la langue dans la construction et le maintien des rapports de pouvoir, de différence et d’inégalité? Pour les
besoins cette communication, nous nous pencherons sur les questions susmentionnées en nous inspirant des résultats partiels d’une étude ethnosociolinguistique menée dans un ministère du gouvernement fédéral situé à Moncton.
LEWEY, Laurel
Session 1
Department of Social Work
St. Thomas University
Friday, 10:40am
BMH 101
Natural helping and Aboriginal child welfare in New Brunswick
This presentation is informed by archival sources and provides insight into the nature of child welfare services that Aboriginal families in New
Brunswick experienced until the formation of Child & Family Service agencies in Aboriginal communities in the early 1980s. A critical
analysis reveals how those services related to the natural helping that always occurred in Aboriginal communities.
LEWIS, Timothy D.
Session 6B
Department of History
Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC
Saturday, 2:10pm
BMH 102
Selling New Brunswick Farmers a New Bill of Goods: Advertising Messages in the Maritime Farmer and Cooperative Dairyman, 1895-1929
The early 20th-century witnessed the full flowering of consumer culture in North America, a development which was encouraged, at least in
part, by advertisers. While one might assume that rural New Brunswickers at the turn of the 20th century were relatively immune from the siren
songs of advertisers based in New York or Toronto, an examination of the advertising content in Atlantic Canada’s foremost agrarian journal -The Maritime Farmer and Co-operative Dairyman -- suggests otherwise. While much of the advertising content in the Maritime Farmer was
locally-produced, and did little more than advocate the purchase of farm equipment in dry, factual terms, over time other influences became
more prominent. By the 1920s, more and more of the journal’s advertisements promoted the purchase of nationally or internationally famous
brand-name products. This change in advertising content not only symbolized the external forces that were playing an ever greater role in the
Maritime economy, it also exposed the Maritime Farmer’s readership to sophisticated sales campaigns that made use of methods, first
developed during the patent-medicine era, that linked the purchase of goods to the fulfilment of deep-seated human desires. Beyond promoting
merchandise, then, the images and text used in the Maritime Farmer’s ad campaigns did much to reinforce the values of North America’s
emerging consumer culture, and thus reshape the lives of farm families.
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MACHUM, Susan
Session 6A
Canada Research Chair in Rural Social Justice
St. Thomas University
Saturday, 2:10pm
BMH 101
Thirty Years On and the Debate Continues: Is There a Future for Agriculture in Rural New Brunswick
Thirty years ago the Hatfield government initiated a task force to examine the future of agriculture in New Brunswick because the sector was
being hit with rapid changes and it was producing an economic crisis in our rural communities. The Agricultural Resource Study spent over
two years hearing from rural citizens and stake holders before revealing its policy agenda for agriculture for the coming decades. The current
New Brunswick government is sponsoring a “self-sufficiency” four month task force to investigate how New Brunswick – both rural and urban
– should position itself in the coming decade. Early comments from the convener of the task force suggest there is no place for a rural
economy in our future. This paper probes the ongoing debates of agriculture and its future in the province. It contemplates how the
marginalizing farming is producing ever increasing clashes between the rural farm and rural non-farm populations and ask whether or not the
non-farm community should be able to restrict or dictate how farm families practise their livelihood. The ultimate goal is to address what the
long-term social, political and economic costs for rural and urban citizens are of a deeper erosion of the traditional rural economy.
MARLIN, Amanda
Poster Presentation
Rural and Small Town Programme
Mount Allison University
Saturday
BMH Lower Concourse
Building Adaptive Capacity in New Brunswick for Climate Change and Sea Level Rise
The climate in New Brunswick is changing and sea level is rising. Of great concern are the many stretches of dykes protecting thousands of
acres of low lying, vulnerable dykeland including agricultural fields, roads, rails, power lines, houses, stores, and industries. These dykes are
centuries old and it will become more costly to maintain them into the future. There are three options for society to consider: raising and
reinforcing, realigning, or restoring dykelands to natural salt marsh. The poster will depict our work and research on building adaptive capacity
to deal with sea level rise now and into the future. We define adaptive capacity as the ability of a community to make adjustments in order to
decrease its vulnerabilities, moderate damages, take advantage of opportunities, and cope with changes. Our findings come from literature
reviews, key informant interviews and three different stakeholder workshops. We examined salt marsh restoration as an adaptive response to
sea level rise and the implications involved; a Tantramar dykeland flooding scenario and methods of measuring community capacity; and we
looked at developing the criteria for a New Brunswick dyke assessment framework. The results indicate that a wide variety of capacities are
required to adapt to climate change and address sea level rise, including community leadership, scientific knowledge, project funding, and
community support.
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MARQUIS, Greg
Session 4B
Department of History and Politics
University of New Brunswick Saint John
Saturday, 9:00am
BMH 102
Re-Imag[in]ing the Post Industrial City: Contemporary Saint John
Based on the period since the early 1990s, this paper examines how government, the business community and the media have attempted to
promote Saint John in its transition to the post-industrial era. The research is being conducted for a Major Collaborative Research Initiative
project on the multilevel governance of Canadian cities. Part of the research looks at how three levels of government have affected the city’s
image. Although the largest part of its labour force was in the service sector, in the post World War II era, Saint John developed an industrial
image chiefly because of Irving interests, including an oil refinery, a shipyard and drydock and two pulp mills. In recent years the closure of
the shipyard and drydock and a sugar refinery coincided with attempts by the business and political community to encourage ‘smart growth’
that included IT, leisure and tourism. Finding a new image for the post-industrial city included replacing Saint John’s tourism symbol
“Loyalist Man” with a more generic “explorer person,” and reclaiming the industrial waterfront for leisure and tourism activities with the
Harbour Passage trail project and a cruise ship terminal. The attempt to create a new positive image for the industrial city has taken place
against a background of declining socio-economic conditions for many residents of the city, continued environmental problems and on-going
decentralization of population, employment and retail activities away from the central business district.
MCFARLAND, Joan
Session 6A
Departments of Economics & Gender Studies
St. Thomas University
Saturday, 1:50pm
BMH 101
An Update on the Call Centre Industry in New Brunswick: Preliminary Findings
Flexibility seems to be a key aspect of the call centre industry- but flexibility for whom? The paper will give preliminary findings from current
research on the industry in New Brunswick based on investigations into the companies involved and interviews with twenty call centre
workers.
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NASON, Randy
Session 1B
Retired Administrator
New Brunswick School District 17
Friday, 10:40am
BMH 102
MCLAUGHLIN, Rosalie
Vice Principal
Cambridge-Narrows School
Education in Rural New Brunswick 3: Hard Questions from the Vantage of Reflective Practice
Michael Fullan writes, "…the purpose of educational change presumably is to help schools accomplish their goals more effectively by
replacing some structures, programs and/or practices with better ones." As the winds of change in New Brunswick threaten to relocate existing
rural school programs to urban areas, two rural educators, with more than 50 combined years of teaching and educational administration in
Cambridge-Narrows School and other rural schools in the region, reflect on their experience of changes in structures, programs and practices in
light of the following questions: Better for whom? In what ways? and Who says? They consider how the current rural schools research from
other parts of Canada, the United States and Great Britain speaks to future possibilities for New Brunswick's rural education system.
OUATTARA, Ibrahim
Session 5A
Faculté des arts et des sciences sociales
Université de Moncton
Saturday, 11:25am
BMH 101
TRANCHANT, Carole C.
Faculté des sciences de la santé et des services communautaires
Université de Moncton
La migration vers des zones rurales : un phénomène singulier et singulièrement prometteur
Comme on peut le constater au Canada Atlantique avec l’exemple de Saint-Léonard (NB), depuis quelques années, les membres des minorités
visibles francophones semblent être également enclins à migrer vers des communautés rurales francophones au lieu d’aller vers les centres
urbains. Plusieurs y voient une solution prometteuse au déficit démographique de ces communautés. Il y a tout de même lieu de se demander
dans quelle mesure cette migration « à contre sens » peut constituer un véritable gage d’avenir. On sait en effet que certaines difficultés de
rétention peuvent rendre ce phénomène très éphémère. Nous nous proposons de réfléchir sur cette question à partir d’un modèle qui vise à
comprendre l’essence et le pourquoi de la migration vers des zones rurales peu attractives au niveau de l’emploi. Ce modèle fait appel à
l’expérience biographique des migrants et à trois hypothèses principales. Il permet de prendre en compte des considérations essentielles quant
à l’issue de la migration (installation durable ou transitoire) et permet de voir que cette migration repose sur une singularité bien particulière,
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notamment la présence de dispositions spécifiques sans lesquelles l’installation durable reste illusoire. L’objectif de cette communication sera
donc de faire le point sur les implications du modèle et sur les résultats des études que nous menons au Nouveau-Brunswick en vue de le
valider.
SAVARESE, Josephine
Session 5B
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
St. Thomas University
Saturday, 11:25am
BMH 102
The Influence of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on Anti-Poverty Advocates in New Brunswick
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is acclaimed for its emphasis on individual freedoms and human rights. Section 7, guaranteeing
the “right to life, liberty and security of the person” and Section 15, guaranteeing the right to equality are among its most noteworthy
provisions. Over the last two decades, equality seekers have used the Charter to advance arguments for the elimination of poverty and for the
amelioration of the social conditions that cause it. Social justice advocates in various provinces, including New Brunswick, have advanced an
expansive view of the Charter where poverty is a violation of the document’s central tenets, as well as its spirit. The concern for the
elimination of poverty has resulted in a proliferation of scholarly works analyzing the Charter as a resource for social justice advocacy.1
Collaborations between activists and constitutional lawyers have also prompted test case litigation. In 2001, the case of Louise Gosselin was
argued before the Supreme Court of Canada. While the case was rejected by a narrow margin of a divided court, the judgement also advanced
arguments linking the Charter with the economic well-being of Canadians. 2 Investigating the Charter’s effect on the social and economic
justice movement is a topic that is both timely and significant. This paper will explore the Charter’s influence on the work of New Brunswick
based anti-poverty groups. Through interviews with leaders in the anti-poverty movement in this province, the research will examine and
critically analyze several key questions, including the role that the Charter has played in shaping their approach to public policy and individual
case advocacy. The paper and presentation will outline the strengths and weaknesses of the Charter from the perspective of persons concerned
with economic and social rights. The research will also report on interviews with key national figures in the campaign against poverty with
knowledge of and working relationships with provincial groups. The paper will document an aspect of the Charter’s history that has not been
thoroughly explored - the ways that the Charter has promulgated a rights consciousness that has influenced social justice proponents based in
the community. This paper will provide insights on the ways that the Charter has shaped grassroots efforts towards equitable social policy at
the provincial level.
1
See, for example: Jackman, M., “Constitutional Contact with the Disparities in the World: Poverty as a Prohibited Ground of Discrimination under the Canadian Charter
and Human Rights Law” (1994) 2 Rev. Constit. Stud. 76 and Brodsky, G. and Day, S., “Beyond the Social and Economic Rights Debate: Substantive Equality Speaks to
Poverty” (2002) 14 CJWL 184.
2
Gosselin v. Quebec (Attorney General), 2002 SCC 84, [2002] 4 S.C.RJ 42985.
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TRANCHANT, Carole C.
Session 5A
Faculté des sciences de la santé et des services communautaires
Université de Moncton
Saturday, 11:45am
BMH 101
OUATTARA, Ibrahim
Faculté des arts et des sciences sociales
Université de Moncton,
L’étranger et la campagne1 : une perspective historique
La prégnance de l’immigration internationale se fait de plus en plus sentir dans l’espace rural au Canada Atlantique. Plusieurs initiatives
comme les Carrefours d’immigration rurale en sont un développement récent. On y voit bien sûr une solution possible au déclin
démographique de certaines communautés minoritaires, tout en sachant par ailleurs que les résistances à l’égard de l’immigration et du
multiculturalisme sont souvent plus marquées en milieu rural. Étant donné les transformations profondes qui sont à l’œuvre dans ces
communautés, d’une part, et l’importance des liens sociaux pour l’intégration des nouveaux arrivants, d’autre part, nous proposons une
réflexion sur le rapport à l’étranger (immigrant ou nouvel arrivant) en milieu rural. Nous donnerons à cette réflexion une perspective historique
(approche diachronique) en utilisant des exemples tirés des recherches que nous menons au Nouveau-Brunswick. Cette communication aidera à
mieux comprendre les dynamiques qui fondent les interactions sociales dans le contexte actuel d’ouverture à l’immigration.
TURNER, Dorothy
Session 1B
Chair
Cambridge-Narrows Parent School Support Committee
Friday, 10:20am
BMH 102
BALL, Marilyn
Superintendent
New Brunswick School District 17
Education in Rural New Brunswick 2: Place-Based Policy Options
This presentation will complement Ms. Hillary Casey's presentation, and offer an analysis of policy options for quality rural K-12 education in
the province, using the example of Cambridge-Narrows School, a 180-student rural school under threat of program closure. Selected schools
from comparable jurisdictions in the northeastern United States will be compared to Cambridge-Narrows School, with concentration on
program options, funding, and the relevance and structure of place-based policy building itself. We propose to bridge academic and
community concerns. The process of preparing and delivering this presentation demonstrates the confluence of interests necessary for placebased initiatives to bear fruit. Successful initiatives not only harness local resources; partnerships must extend beyond the community to the
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governments, academic and other institutions and organizations that maintain the rural fabric of New Brunswick. At each of these levels
partnerships need to be encouraged and strengthened through mutual interests. We will discuss both the policy options derived from our local
work, and the wider relevance of this kind of activism in New Brunswick community development.
TURNER, Linda
Session 1A
Department of Social Work
St. Thomas University
Friday, 10:00am
BMH 101
New Brunswick as the first professionally trained social workers knew it
Jennie Robinson, who held the position of Superintendant of Moncton's Interprovincial Home for Girls in the mid 1920's is believed to be the
first professionally qualified social worker in this province. She was later joined by a committed group of men and women in the 1940s, 50s
and 60s. This Presentation will highlight the social and economic contexts within which these social work pioneers circulated, based on
interview data and archival research. Disparities between northern and southern, urban and rural parts of the province will be highlighted.
RICHARD, Louis
Session 1A
Department of Social Work
Université de Moncton
Friday, 10:20am
BMH 101
The first Acadian social workers
This is believed to be the first study of its kind ever undertaken. It examined a total of twelve Acadian social workers who entered the work
force in New Brunswick between 1957 and 1964, beginning a full 31 years after the arrival in 1929 in New Brunswick of the first Englishspeaking social worker. Information was gathered from a questionnaire as well as a recorded face-to-face interview. The study reviews study
patterns of members of this group with reference to language before the advent of official bilingualism in the Province.
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VAN DEN HOONAARD, Will C.
Session 5B
Department of Sociology
University of New Brunswick
Saturday, 10:45am
BMH 102
VAN DEN HOONAARD, Deborah K.
Department of Gerontology and Canada Research Chair, Qualitative Research and Analysis
St. Thomas University
The Poignant Accomplishments of Baha’I Newcomers from Iran
This paper explores the overall experience of Iranian Baha'is who are newcomers in Atlantic Canada. Their experience gains poignancy when
one considers the harsh persecution they faced as Baha'is in Iran before leaving for Canada, and their struggles to find a new life of freedom in
the face of a wall of "good-willed indifference" in Atlantic Canada. These findings are based on a study we are conducting among Iranian
Baha'is who have settled in Atlantic Canada for at least ten years. The research involves interviews and participation in Baha'i events. The
Baha'i Community of Canada numbers some 30,000 adherents and was established in Canada some 100 years ago. It was only since 1979 that
the Baha'i Community saw the arrival of many Iranian Baha'is through an innovative immigration program cooperatively designed by the
Government of Canada and the national Baha'i Community. A relatively small number of Iranian Baha'is have come to live in Atlantic Canada
where they are making substantive contributions to the life of Atlantic Canada.
VINCENT, Guy
Session 2
Département d’histoire et de géographie
Université de Moncton
Friday, 12:55pm
BMH 101
Migration importante et hybridation de la forme urbaine dans la région du Moncton métro?
La population mondiale s’urbanise et la tendance s’accélère. Selon l’ONU, cette proportion atteindra 50% en 2007. Ces tendance et
proportion sont semblables au Nouveau-Brunswick. Conformément au modèle centre-périphérie, des centres urbains semblent attirer depuis
quelques décennies une proportion importante de migrants provenant de milieux ruraux contribuant ainsi à leur perte de vitalité. La région du
Grand Moncton s’inscrit justement dans cette tendance puisqu’elle exerce un magnétisme certain auprès de populations de provenances
diverses, souvent de milieux ruraux, qui ont constitué une part importante de sa croissance au cours des deux dernières décennies. Ainsi, à
l’heure d’un questionnement important sur le réchauffement climatique, le développement durable et les habitudes de vie, nous devons nous
questionner sur l’impact de ces migrations « vers le centre ». Assiste-t-on à une hybridation de la forme urbaine? La population migrante
s’urbanise-t-elle? Ou n’est-ce pas la région du Grand Moncton qui se ruralise à travers ce qui serait convenu d’identifier comme une
reconfiguration de l’espace acadien ?
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WHITMORE, Erin
Session 4A
Department of English
University of New Brunswick
Saturday, 9:40am
BMH 101
Narrating Nature: Gender and Environment in Nineteenth-Century New Brunswick Literature
New Brunswickers regularly engage in discussions about various environmental challenges facing the region. While these discussions, often
focused on energy use, waste management, and resource use, are situated within a twenty-first century context, this paper explores the possible
historical roots to our present-day environmental concerns as these are discussed in a variety of literary texts produced in New Brunswick
during the mid- to late nineteenth century. By examining a variety of writing, including conduct and housekeeping manuals, poetry, novels,
and autobiographical writing, this paper argues that a conversation regarding New Brunswickers’ relationship with the natural world started
long before our current environmental crisis made such conversations urgent. In particular, this paper seeks to highlight how literature is an
essential resource in resituating women’s voices in the province’s environmental and literary history, and how literary analysis of these early
texts provides useful insights into the gendered history of our relationship to the environment. Finally, this paper will consider how these
historical and literary contemplations offer connections, and possibly insights, to present day environmental concerns.
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