Avner Levin
Canadian SMEs and the Commercialization of IP
This paper discusses the results of a research project funded by Industry Canada into the degree to which Canadian SMEs are equipped to commercialize and protect their IP in other jurisdictions. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are Canada’s engine of growth and they have the potential to lead Canadian business in innovation and international competition. To maximize their potential, SMEs must know their intellectual property (IP) rights and know how to protect and exploit their IP assets. However, according to Canadian International Council reports, most SMEs have little knowledge of IP in general and even less capacity to protect and exploit their IP assets. The US, UK, Singapore and South Korea support their SMEs in IP protection through cost-defraying options such as grants and loans. In such circumstances the identification of challenges that Canadian SMEs face is of interest and importance to Canada, as it aims to ensure Canadian SMEs remain competitive internationally. Similar considerations and concerns apply to Israel.
The research project was based on a case-study methodology in which in-depth interviews were conducted with SMEs from a variety of high-tech sectors. SMEs were asked about their general knowledge of IP, their ability to employ IP protection and the IP related issues they face in international markets. Some of the key findings of the research project reported in the paper are, perhaps unsurprisingly, that SMEs were very interested in government funding that would help defray their IP costs, but somewhat more surprisingly, that they expressed very little interest in increasing their knowledge of IP and that IP considerations did not play a major role in setting SME strategic business decisions. IP-related disputes were viewed as an expected, yet not alarming, contingency of doing business. This risk-taking approach is not very “Canadian”, and it is interesting to explore the Israeli implications.
Benson Honig
Approaching markets from the periphery: Common challenges for CEO’s and policymakers in Canada and Israel
China, the US, and the EU represent huge markets that tend to drown out smaller players. Israel, the ‘start up nation’, and Canada, both play active roles in NASDAQ, obtaining capital and launching innovative firms. However, frequently, these firms are purchased and moved to other locations. Rarely do successful Canadian or Israeli startups remain in their respective national orbit.
This presentation will examine successful and unsuccessful strategies employed by both firms and policymakers attempting to maintain competitive market dominance in various fields. The goal will be to encourage audience participation and discussion regarding the factors that lead to successful outcomes: How can smaller countries launch and grow innovative firms while maintaining both national identity and financial success and control?
Catherine Caufield
Integration v. Assimilation:Jewish-Canadian Women Authors
Foregrounding the work of Jewish women writers in Canada serves to enhance our understanding of global migration and the cross-cultural aspects that have shaped the unfolding history of Canada. In our infinitely diverse, plural, and highly conflicted world, exploring the contributions of Jews and Jewish women in negotiating ways of co-existing, including with oneself, increases not only our knowledge of Canadian Jewish life but also of how Canada is experienced by those who live in it. It explores integration at local, national, and international levels. It is timely work in terms of current reflection, examination, and questioning of the multicultural policy that has influenced Canadian identity for almost forty years. The power and influence of religiocultural affiliation (which may be externally assigned) carries widespread import in both popular culture and in institutional contexts. A challenge inherent to this power and influence are social and political implications of how particular individuals, within particular communities, have understood themselves and their place in the Canadian mosaic at particular moments in time. These understandings are deeply informed by personal and familial histories that are themselves located within what are often seemingly nonsensical twists and turns in world history. Any progress made in elucidating connections between what are sometimes disparate elements in the Canadian Jewish experience, from the perspective of women authors, has far-reaching implications for processes of integration, but not necessarily assimilation, into Canadian society. This twenty-minute presentation glosses major periods of Jewish immigration to Canada, notes associated centres of literary foment, and highlights some of the key Jewish women writers in each period. This gloss of background lays the groundwork for comment on ways in which, as ostensibly incongruous components are pulled together and expressed through the various selected fictional texts, the diversity elucidated in the works of these authors reflects and contributes to understanding the humanity intrinsic to the continuing unfolding cultural diversity within the nation of Canada
Clark Banack
The Nature of Religious Education in Canada and its place within a Global Context
Why is it that Canadian provinces have evolved such different ways of regulating and supporting religious schools? For more than a century, primary and secondary education has been a universal program, with curriculum, teacher accreditation, and educational administration generally converging on similar models and following similar trends across the country. Schools are situated within provincial societies and economies that expect broadly similar things of them and, although demographic diversity takes different forms across the country, all Canadian schools grapple with how best to serve diverse populations. Yet despite this convergence, provinces approach religious education in very different ways, each rooted in a series of particularistic choices deeply nested in provincial political contexts.
This paper, drawn from a book-length work on the same topic, seeks to account for these differences between these provinces by closely examining the political process of evolution with an eye to three critical questions that Canadian provinces have struggled with:
1. What does it mean to be a secular society?
2. What is the role of non-government actors in the provision of a universal social program?
3. How can schools form students into good citizens and how ought they provide opportunities for broader public engagement in school decision-making?
Understanding the constraints and opportunities that framed how each province deals with these puzzles requires that we track the often idiosyncratic combination of political and constitutional factors that determined the structures of school governance and the powerful forces of path dependency that lie underneath contemporary structures. We focus on the ways in which political decision-makers approached the place of the state with regards religious schools at key turning points while also examining why the systems that resulted from these moments of change have often lasted so long change.
This paper concludes with some thoughts on how the Canadian picture compares to broader global trends with respect to the growing popularity of “school choice” as well as the particular political pressures that exist in contemporary Israel around this issue.
Dotan Rousso
The role of cultural differences in the globalization process – the Canadian Israeli case
The globalization process involves cultural interactions. Those interactions, whether personal, social or professional, entails a variety of challenges including the need to understand, interpret and communicate with individuals from other cultures in a beneficial, useful and coherent way.
The more cultural differences occur between two cultures, the more challenging it is to overcome them in a way which will exclude or reduce misunderstanding, conflicts and obstacles towards achieving the common goals and interests.
The process of globalization between Israel and Canada, which aims to promote innovation and initiative, requires awareness and careful attention / examination of cultural gaps between the two cultures and their potential implications.
The State of Israel is characterized as a "start-up" nation that is strong in innovation and entrepreneurship. It is generally agreed that certain Israeli cultural characteristics serve a fundamental role in this: strong self-confidence; creativity on the expanse of working according to strict rules (Thinking "out of the box"); Familiarity which helps in creating direct, open and honest interactions between all levels and professional hierarchies; Full commitment to work, sometimes at the expense of private and family life.
These qualities, useful in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship as they may be, may sometimes clash with different cultural norms such as the Canadian ones.
In my essay / lecture I will attempt to argue that the cultural differences between Canada and Israel can be divided and described in two separate categories: One, up front clear and obvious differences, such as behavior, approach to privacy, politeness and rules of conduct. Second, hidden differences that concern cultural codes and nuances which relate to the use and meaning of language, body language, and political correctness.
The lecture will seek to relate to these two types of cultural differences in the context of the Commercial and academic worlds while emphasizing the concrete characteristics of the two cultures (typical failures stemming from these cultural gaps, and their potential impact on globalization processes between Canada and Israel in the contexts of development and innovation).
The author / speaker's personal experience as a born and raised Israeli who participated in Canadian life and academic activity will serve as an important foundation for the discussion on the proposed topic.
Eran Razin
Checks and Balances in Urban Planning in a Context of a Global Housing Crisis and Environmental Challenges: British Columbia, Ontario and Israel
Planning systems in growing metropolitan areas face contradicting pressures of promoting sustainable “smart growth” and rising housing prices; the latter fueled by the prolonged period of low interest rates, but argued to be at least partly caused by planning regulations and urban containment policies. My study examines checks and balances, crucial in dealing with the contradicting challenges, in three planning systems: Ontario, BC and Israel. Rapidly growing global metropolitan areas are located in all three (Toronto, Vancouver and Tel Aviv), and the study looks at implications of these checks and balances on metropolitan growth.
Ontario is a prime example for decentralization of planning powers accompanied by powerful checks that primarily include a provincial appeal board, binding provincial planning documents, municipal official plans approved by the province, and high-quality local planning bureaucracies. Metropolitan planning is largely performed at the provincial level. BC seemingly lacks top-down checks: ultimate planning decision-making powers are held by city councils and regional plans are weak collaborative bottom-up endeavors. A balance of power in the triangle of elected mayor/councilors, planning bureaucracy, community, as well as behavioral codes of restraint in non-consensual decision-making, are of crucial significance when “external” checks are weak. Israeli checks and balances have been based on a three-level hierarchy of planning commissions. Metropolitan planning is an implicit part of planning at the national level. Contradicting reforms of decentralization and centralization took place simultaneously. Mainly the limited implementation capacity of the central state has mitigated strong centralizing pressures.
The evaluation highlights the weaknesses of bottom-up systems in promoting suburban densification, despite well-embedded principles of sustainability. Top-down systems could promote mass high-density suburbanization, but one that does not necessarily follow principles of smart growth. Both Canadian systems have faced difficulties in promoting mid- rise suburban transformation instead of the emerging polarization between high-rises and single-family houses. Ontario presents the most balanced “role model” system, but paradoxically it seems most prone to public critique and pressures for change.
The study was supported by a grant of the Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies
Inbal Blau
Globalization and Innovation in Compensation for Mass Tort Victims - A Comparative Study regarding the Hemophilia Patients Treated by HIV-Infected Blood Transfusions
During the 1980s, hemophilia patients around the world were treated by blood transfusions and a blood product called Factor 8, both infected by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). At that time most of the victims who were infected by HIV from blood transfusions and Factor 8, were hemophilia patients. Each country took a different legal-medical course in addressing this major form of malpractice. In
my study, I explore what are the factors that impacted the way the legal system addressed the issue of hemophilia patients treated by HIV-infected blood transfusions during the 1980s. In this paper I would like to review and compare the innovative compensation mechanisms which were developed and established in Canada and Israel, both countries use public-health system. As a matter of fact, in this matter, the Israeli legal system approached and handled the issue of compensation according to the rationale previously adopted by the Canadian system. Like Canada, Israel chose an innovative policy making strategy that in both countries was promoted by the victims group and based on a no fault liability perspective - i.e. compensating the victims without the need to prove any negligence. Moreover, in both countries the state played a main role in shaping the compensation mechanism. This was a unique test-case in which Israel implemented a Canadian legal mechanism as a solution.
Moreover, I will compare the way in which the legal systems in Israel and in Canada addressed this issue, and I will uncover the factors that shaped the compensation mechanisms developed in each country. As mentioned, the compensation in Israel followed the Canadian rationale based on the
reason that both are welfare state and most of the patient received the blood transfusion through the state authorities. Although Israel chose a single track whereby to determine compensation to the victims –in the form of unique legislation (the Victims of Blood Transfusions (HIV) Compensation Law 1992), the Israeli parliament at first employed the same logic regarding categories of victims, forms of compensation (a lump sum followed by payments staggered over time), and the tort concept regarding the issue, similarly to Canada. Therefore, I intend to examine which political, socio-cultural, and legal factors impacted the shaping of compensation mechanisms in Canada and in Israel and to
compare the two cases.
Luis Felip Cesneros Martinez, Mihai Ibanesc
Native-born Quebequers and immigrants’ entrepreneurial intentions
In the province of Quebec (Canada), as in other countries, the immigrants show more often entrepreneurial intentions (40%) than natives (16%), as the Quebec Entrepreneurial Index 2018 found[1]. Differences between men and women are very small for the natives (17% for men, 15% for women), but important for the immigrants (49% and 31%). However the gap between immigrants who already started a new business (9%) and the natives (6%) is smaller than in US (where the share of self-employed immigrants are twice the share for the natives), and our study tries to identify some of the reasons.
This study examines, using mixed methods, some of the determinants of the formation of entrepreneurial intentions, emphasizing the differences between immigrants and natives in Quebec, taking into account the respondent’s gender, level of education and age. We focused mainly on the propensity to assume risks, perceptions of self-efficacy, focus of control, and motivations to become entrepreneur. We also analyzed the main hurdles for becoming entrepreneurs, especially for immigrants.
This study used data from a survey in the province of Quebec, Canada, 2018, on the current attitudes and practices among adult individuals concerning their entrepreneurial intentions, motivations, practices and needs. The quantitative survey was conducted among 2560 individuals (from an original sample of 11303). This survey used a system of quotas and weighting coefficients, ensuring minimal numbers of respondents in the main categories, in order to permit good confidence intervals for the analyses inside each group. The analyses were performed in IBM SPSS® Statistics and included mainly correlations, EFA and One-Way Anova analyses to identify significant differences between groups. On the other hand, observation and semi-structured interviews were carried out to identify the motivations and the main hurdles to start a company. The qualitative data has been mainly gathered from EntrePrism’s entrepreneurs[2]. EntrePrism[3] is a business incubator with a novel model relying on entrepreneurship as an instrument for social and economic inclusion for immigrants.
Regarding the quantitative survey, first results show a much higher propensity of immigrants to select self-employment, twice higher than natives. Differences between men and women are higher for immigrants than for natives.
The tests show significant differences (alpha=0.05) between immigrant men and the other three groups for the perceptions of the possession of capabilities and personal qualities to start a business, as well as for the comprehension of the business processes. Immigrant men also have a significant higher acceptance of risk, while both immigrant women and native men cluster separately from native women, which have the lowest level of risk acceptance. The level of study is significantly more important for immigrants between 35 and 64 years. Having one of the Canadian official languages (English or French) as maternal tongue is another factor, as is previous business family exposure to business activity or previous entrepreneurial experience (in the origin country).
Concerning the qualitative outcomes, immigrants wanting to become entrepreneurs face specific hurdles, such as: lack of business network; lack of knowledge about the Quebec entrepreneurial ecosystem and Quebec entrepreneurial culture; limited business support from government and other organizations, support from family and friends; almost no access to financing; insufficient revenues; difficulties for conciliating work and family, while some triggers are more important, like the wish for taking control of their lives, beating the imposter syndrome, and to follow a family tradition.
This study also points out entrepreneurial gendered differences and adds more to the understanding of why some immigrants are more entrepreneurial than natives.
Maude Arsenault
Social Innovation and the Management of Diversity: An Analysis of Intercultural Education Programs in Québec
Another perspective on social innovation and intercultural programs can be found in the field of education. Intercultural education is an attempt to adapt curricula to the realities of a globalizing world in Canada. Various perspectives have been developed: multicultural / intercultural education, peace education, anti-racist education, development education, education in a global perspective, bilingual education and education for democracy or citizenship. In 1988, the Ministry of Education of Québec set up its Integration and Intercultural Education Policy in order to promote the integration of immigrant students in Québec society. Since this period, schools, from primary to post-secondary (CEGEP) have developed their own policies and strategies in order to implement this governmental policy. In this presentation, we will describe the main issues raised in intercultural education in Quebec, following an analysis of a body of articles and texts on intercultural education policies enacted by educational authorities, like school management or school board. The objectives and the importance of different types of knowledge (knowledge, attitudes and interpersonal skills), as well as the values to be imparted to the students, will be presented in order to highlight the similarities and differences between the programs. The limits of these programs will also be discussed. As for the training programs for professionals, the evaluation of their impact on target groups and the level of achievement of intercultural competencies remains an area requiring further research.
Maya Hauptman
Gérard Etienne, une écriture combattante
(Cap-Haitien, 1936 – Montréal, 2008)
L'écrivain haïtien-canadien Gérard Etienne, poète, romancier, essayiste dramaturge et journaliste, déclare : "Le révolutionnaire que je suis ne publiera pas un livre – poésie, roman, essai – dont la fonction est de laisser dormir en paix les fascistes et les féodaux." Ou encore "Après avoir lu Du contrat social de Rousseau et les encyclopédistes – Diderot, Helvétius, etc. –, écrire est devenu pour moi un acte de combat. […] cette nécessité de me battre contre l’injustice, sous quelque forme qu’elle se présente, s’imposait à moi de façon impérative, d’où mon passage très tôt au journalisme combattant". Voici une déclaration de foi qui vise à lutter contre l'injustice et à démasquer les pouvoirs politiques coercitifs dissimulés. Conscient du pouvoir révolutionnaire des médias, Professeur à l'université de Moncton, il fonde après une lutte acharnée, le module journalisme. Il constate: " je n’aurais jamais pensé qu’un hebdomadaire comme Haïti-Observateur aurait ainsi contribué à l’effondrement des systèmes duvaliériste et aristidien.
Dans La question raciale et raciste dans le roman québécois, essai d'anthroposémiologie (1995), La femme noire dans le discours littéraire haïtien (1998), et Une femme muette, Etienne traite de la problématique des nègres qui haïssent les négresses. Son écriture polémique va à l'encontre de la littérature haïtienne où les sèmes de laideur et de puanteur caractérisent la femme noire, revalorisant la culture et la peau noire, comme l'avaient fait Senghor, Césaire et le mouvement de la négritude.
L'exil politique, les difficultés d'adaptation des immigrants face à un climat rigoureux, à la solitude, à la faim, à la délation et à la peur d'expulsion par les services d'immigration canadienne, sont autant de thèmes actuels exposés dans les romans Vous n'êtes pas seul et La romance en do mineur de maitre Clo.
Néologismes, inversement syntaxiques, omission du prédicat à l'instar des langues sémites (Benveniste), mélange des genres, font de l'écriture d'Etienne une écriture innovante tant par sa forme que par les problèmes soulevés.
Marina Milner-Bolotin, Dina Tsybulsky, Svetlana Chachashvili-Bolotin
Breaking the boundaries: From innovation to practice in STEM teacher education
Israel and Canada face similar challenges. Our societies depend on innovative forward-looking thinking that breaks traditional disciplinary boundaries and defies conventional subject borders and practices. This realization prompted educators, researchers, and policy makers to emphasize multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary pedagogical approaches in the K-12 education. This is especially relevant to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. While the students should acquire subject-specific STEM core concepts, ideas, and practices, equally important is student ability to integrate them to solve real life problems facing our societies. As a result, in recent decades in Israel and Canada, the concept of STEM education has gradually entered both the curricular documents and K-12 schools. However, education researchers and practitioners are yet to reach a consensus about the essence of STEM education and effective teacher education practices. Paradoxically, the traditional subject boundaries in teacher education today are as strong as ever. If we want to educate the next generation of citizens who will be able to think innovatively, we have to educate teachers who are motivated and capable to break the traditional subject boundaries and embrace a holistic STEM paradigm in their teaching practices.
In this paper, we propose an innovative pedagogical approach for teacher education that can facilitate the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary STEM teaching and learning. We will also show how this pedagogical approach can be adapted to two different teacher education contexts relevant to both Israel and Canada. Our approach has three steps: (a) future STEM teachers engage in inquiry projects that require the use of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary concepts, ideas, and practices; (b) they collaborate on designing lessons that incorporate this approach in their teaching practice; (c) future STEM teachers implement their lessons during the school practicum and reflect on these lessons with their mentors and peers. This three-step approach allows future STEM teachers to experience this innovative pedagogy first as learners and then to implement it as teachers. Only after future teachers will experience the effect of breaking the traditional STEM subject boundaries will they be ready to embrace this pedagogy as 21st century educators.
Nirit Putievsky Pilosof
Innovation in Healthcare Design: a Comparative Perspective on Hospital Architecture in Canada and Israel
Healthcare architecture requires an innovative design strategy for future change. A sustainableapproach to the hospital life-cycle operation must take into account the constant and rapid transformations in medicine, technology, and sociology. Since the 1960s, architects and hospital directors have developed theories and methods to anticipate where changes are most likely to occur and to design hospitals for maximum flexibility and expansion. This study explores those architectural design theories in practice, in the context of hospital buildings in
Canada and Israel. The study documents and analyzes the McMaster Health Sciences Centre (MHSC) in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, the Sammy Ofer Heart Center at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, and the Joseph Fishman Oncology Hospital & Eyal Ofer Heart Hospital at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel. The case study analyzes the innovative design strategy of the buildings in comparison to each hospital's evolution process over time. The results illustrate the impact of the design strategy on the flexibility of the building to future change and evolvement. The different innovative approaches defined the affordance of the hospitals to make changes during the design process, construction and occupancy phase. The results also demonstrate the significant influence of national healthcare policies, organization regulations, and funding models on the architecture and flexibility of hospitals.
Acknowledgment: This research is generously supported by a European Research Council grant
(FP7 ADV 340753) and the Azrieli Foundation Fellowship.
Joseph Lévy
Social Innovation and the Management of Diversity in Québec: an Analysis of the Training Programs and their Organizational Development
Contemporary Western societies are facing rapid transformations that profoundly affect their economic and social structures. Among them, the increase of migratory flows and the arrival of populations with diverse economic and socio-cultural profiles generates new challenges, including issues related to adaptation in various spheres of social and economic life. These factors have led to the implementation of programs based on social innovations, which Klein has defined as: "an intervention initiated by social actors to meet an aspiration, to fulfill a need, to provide a solution or to take advantage of an opportunity for action to change social relations, to transform a framework of action or to propose new cultural orientations" (2017). The management of diversity in Québec, which is today considered an essential part of state and private planning, is discussed in the academic literature as a form of social innovation, but one that is not without its problems. Following the publication of studies in a growing field of research, this communication aims to identify the discourses and practices of training programs and their different forms of organizational development.
Using key words such as diversity, management and social innovation, a body of texts and sites was compiled and analyzed for this research. Initial analysis indicates that programs originate from various institutional sources (private companies, non-profit organizations, public institutions, para-public sector, trade unions and educational institutions) and target a variety of groups (companies, social and health sectors, student populations, etc.). The concept of diversity is with multiple conceptual qualifiers (intercultural, cultural, ethnocultural, multicultural) which reflect the different sociopolitical frames of reference used in the Canadian and Quebec context, often without clear definitions. Training programs involve multiple levels, ranging from theoretical and empirical thinking to specific methods for the management of the diversity from a human resources perspective. This heterogeneity is also found in the pedagogical methods used in these programs (in-depth courses, intensive sessions, tailor-made training, conferences, etc.). This analysis highlights some of the modalities affecting the field of diversity management and training initiatives in Quebec, but their economic and socio-cultural effects on the target groups still remain to be better understood.
Jorge Frozzini
Representing (Im)migration in Québec (Canada): Surveys as Technologies for Management and Control
Surveys are commonly assumed to achieve pure data and the scientific expression of what people think of a given subject. However, they remain an expression of a particular representation at a given time and space. Numerous surveys conducted over the years in Canada have dealt with (im)migration issues and a number of them have appeared in major newspapers since the 1960s. As we know, media plays an important role in the selection, construction, production and consumption of information and opinions expressed in the news (Allan, 2010). For that reason, an analysis of these surveys is useful to understand the progression of the way newspapers represent (im)migration through these surveys to the public. How has representation of (im)migrant issues progressed over time? What issues triggered those surveys?
In previous research we have shown the importance of the representation people have of a given situation and the importance of understanding the frame which holds the main conceptions expressed. This presentation pursues that interest a little further by explaining : (1) how the representation of (im)migration has been expressed; and (2) how this technology (the surveys) acts as a tool, just as documents do (Browne, 2009), to include and exclude people who belong or not to a nation. This will help us better understand the process of nation-building as it includes other means than those of the State.
Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Talya Steiner, Lior Sheffer, Shiran Barzilai
The Effect of Awareness to "Rights" on the Willingness to Hear the Other: An Experimental Analysis in Israel and Canada
Although administrative decisions regarding freedom of speech are not meant to be affected by the decision maker's ideological preferences, empirical research has established the effects of motivated reasoning on such decisions. This reality raises interest in locating mechanisms that may mitigate these effects.
Constitutional rights are meant to provide legal protection for interests that may otherwise be in danger of under-protection. Rights are meant to restrain policy makers, signaling them to provide special weight to a consideration which they otherwise may discount. In the context of freedom of speech, the right is particularly required to protect the expression of unpopular views that challenge prevailing political status quo which are particularly in danger of being censored.
In light of this conceptualization of freedom of speech, the aim of this study is to test whether enhancing awareness to the involvement of a right in the decisions (by labeling the consideration of free speech as a "right") affects the likelihood of choosing the right-protecting option, compared to a control condition. Furthermore, the study tests whether enhancing awareness to rights mitigates the level of motivated reasoning in such decisions – i.e., the effect of ideological preferences.
In two experiments conducted in Israel (N=1,756) and Canada (N=1,335), participants were tasked with either approving or denying a demonstration request, based on a scenario in which previous history establishes a certain level of threat to public order if the demonstration is approved. Following a two by two design, the participants were either presented with a request by a right wing or left wing organization, and the scenario either did or did not state that enabling the demonstration would allow the protestors to realize their constitutional right to demonstrate.
In both experiments enhancing awareness to the constitutional right increased the likelihood of approving the demonstration. However, the moderating effect of awareness to rights on the level of motivated reasoning was different between the two countries. While rights-awareness decreased motivated reasoning in Canada, our findings in Israel show that emphasizing the constitutional right increased the effect of ideological preferences. These findings suggest that the effects of the constitutional rights discourse are not uniform. While in some cases awareness to rights may mitigate irrelevant ideological effects, it may also have the opposite affect than intended: enhancing the protection of the otherwise favored interest. We discuss some possible explanations for the differences between Israel and Canada, and offer a more nuanced understanding of the rights discourse.
Ramzi Halabi
Tsofen Overview: Building Hi-Tech in the Arab Community
Tsofen is a non-profit organization, founded in 2008 by Jewish and Arab hi-tech professionals and economists who aspired to develop the hi-tech sector in the Arab community as an economic lever and catalyst for shared society in Israel. In 2016, Tsofen won the Speaker of the Israeli Parliament’s Prize for Promoting Mutual Understanding between Jews and Arabs. Tsofen operates in Nazareth and Kafr Qasim.
Tsofen is rooted simultaneously in the heart of the Arab community and Israel’s hi-tech industry. We bridge stakeholders from Arab municipalities, Arab students and graduates, the Israeli government, and the hi-tech industry, to 1) promote the establishment of hi-tech hubs in Arab towns, and 2) integrate thousands of Arab engineers into hi-tech firms . In 2008, Arab engineers accounted for 0.5% of employees in Israeli hi-tech (about 350 people). Today, they represent 3.7%
(about 5,500 people). Our goal is to increase the percentage of Arab citizens employed in hi-tech to at least 10% by 2025.
Promoting Hi-Tech in Israel's Arab Community: A Shared Necessity
The Israeli Innovation Authority’s 2016 Annual Report indicated that Israel's status as the "Start-Up Nation" is in real danger. A shortage of 10,000 engineers is curtailing the growth of Israeli hi-tech. The report also emphasized the Arab community as a key demographic group with the potential to help meet the shortage. Accordingly, hi-tech companies in Israel, both domestic and international ,are beginning to recognize the business sense in increased employment of Arab graduates and the opening of branches in Arab towns. The Arab community is also demonstrating increasingly high confidence in the hi-tech sector as a viable employment option. From 2012 to 2015, the number of Arab undergrads studying hi-tech relevant subjects increased by 55%.
These developments are the outcome of Tsofen's intensive activities as a leading organization in the field, along with other players. Since its founding in 2008, Tsofen has run 37 specialization courses with a unique model that addresses the major obstacles that Arab candidates face in securing hi-tech employment. We have placed over 1,600 candidates in Israel's leading hi-tech companies and have carried out a wide range of activities to build a thriving hi-tech community and ecosystem in the Arab community. Today there are over 1,200 hi-tech employees in Nazareth (compared to just 30 in 2008), of which 25% are Arab women, working in leading firms like Amdocs, Microsoft, Broadcom, Alpha Omega, Galil Software, and over 40 local companies. In Kafr Qasim, we operate a start-up accelerator program and are working closely with government offices and the local municipality to establish a hi-tech park in the city .Programmatic Model and Key
Projects
Professional training and placement of Arab graduates in the hi-tech sector Tsofen was chosen by the Israel Ministry of Economy and Industry to operate training and placement tracks for Arab graduates. This program includes occupational experience, intensive professional training, and mentoring, all of which provide the knowledge and practical skills required to integrate successfully into a competitive workplace. Tsofen's specialization tracks provide candidates with both the technical competencies most sought after by hi-tech companies and the soft-skills needed to succeed in the industry’s organizational culture.
Establishing hi-tech hubs in Arab towns Exposing and marketing the economic potential of establishing branches and development groups in Nazareth and Kafr Qasim (both are national priority areas where development is incentivized by
the government) among the business sector is an important goal. We help hi-tech companies leverage government and municipal incentives in the form of wage subsidies, municipal real estate benefits and infrastructure development commitments. Tsofen connects companies to a variety of government tools aimed at encouraging and promoting industry and employment.
Moreover, Tsofen creates a shared, professional space for the Jewish and Arab communities in Israel with the goal of promoting equal opportunities and changing the social discourse. This is done through technology events and promoting media coverage of the entrepreneurial potential of the Arab community. To complete our programmatic model, Tsofen facilitates technology-based entrepreneurship at our start-up accelerator in Kafr Qasim .
Tsofen’s Leadership
Tsofen’s three founders are Smadar Nehab (high-tech entrepreneur), Yossi Coten (former Amdocs executive), and Sami Saadi, who is currently the Co-CEO of Tsofen together with Paz Hirschmann.
Sami and Paz have been listed in the top 50 economic influencers in Israel by both of the country’s leading economic newspapers: The Marker and Calcalist. Tsofen's Chairman of the Board is economist Dr. Ramzi Halabi (former Mayor of Daliyat al-Carmel and currently a lecturer at Tel Aviv University). Tsofen founded and runs the Public Council for the Advancement of Hi-Tech in Arab Society, co-chaired by David Perlmutter (former Executive Vice President, Intel Corporation) andProf. Ziyad Hanna (VP of R&D at Cadence and Visiting Professor at Oxford University).
Ruth Amir
The Globalization of Justice and Intersectionality: Transitional Justice in Canada
The globalization of justice and the emergence of international law has become part of the post-World War II human rights culture. The post-Cold War era is marked with the emergence of transitional justice as a globalized framework for the resolution of long-standing conflicts in both transitional and established democracies. Notwithstanding the globalization of justice, it is necessary to acknowledge the socially, historically, and locally bound contexts.
The proposed paper offers an analysis of the transitional justice tools employed in Canada, which followed from the 1991 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, and Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The analysis is founded on intersectionality theory, which focuses on power structures based on gendered and other identity-based categories, and the manner in which these structures interact and create human vulnerabilities.
I put forward two interrelated arguments. First, that to do justice, transitional justice must employ intersectionality, with respect to which tools are employed, by whom and in what manner, and whether it acknowledges the victims’ heterogeneity diverse and dynamic needs. Second, to do justice, transitional justice must adopt a transformative and holistic perspective, which offers a solution to the structural inequalities. The paper thus outlines modular building blocks of the transitional justice tools employed and discusses their application in the field and the extent to which its much-aspired long-term goals such as reconciliation, healing for the victims and peace can indeed be achieved.
Shiri M. Breznitz and Qiantao Zhang
Fostering the Growth of Student Start-ups from University Accelerators: An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Perspective
In this study, we examine the economic impact of the Campus-Linked Accelerators (CLAs) program funded by the Government of Ontario. Although the CLA program does not specify expected outcomes, it does provide broad objectives, such as helping student entrepreneurs transfer knowledge and IP from Ontario’s post-secondary institutions into the economy and creating more student entrepreneur-led start-ups in sectors such as the sciences and clean technologies. Through the CLA program, the University of Toronto has established nine accelerators. Thus, by revising the program and its impact, this paper contributes to an understanding of how a government policy and university accelerators can better support the entrepreneurial efforts of students. It is clear that firms that participate in accelerators with a screening process have a stronger performance in both employment and product growth. Moreover, a habitual entrepreneur director or a more intensive accelerator program is found to have more positive effects on product growth at firms than on employment growth.
Simone Grossman
Actualité d'Esther Brandeau, aventurière juive en Nouvelle-France
Dans le contexte actuel, où des Québécois "pure laine" découvrent leur origine marrane, Esther Brandeau, "seul cas d’immigration juive en Nouvelle-France dont il existe des traces dans les documents officiels de l’époque"(P.Anctil), est au centre de plusieurs fictions parues au cours des dernières décennies. La jeune Juive arrivée à Québec en 1738, déguisée en homme, bravant l'interdiction des non-catholiques dans la colonie, fut rapatriée un an plus tard aux frais du roi de France parce qu'elle refusait de se convertir au catholicisme.
Notre propos se préoccupe de la représentation d'Esther Brandeau dans un corpus de trois fictions romanesques. Dans la nouvelle de Naïm Kattan, "Mon nom est Esther" (1985), Esther Brandeau, narratrice autodiégétique, retrace son double parcours géographique et spirituel. Dans Une Juive en Nouvelle-France (2004), Pierre Lasry met en scène Esther Brandeau, descendante de marranes, enfuie du ghetto de Saint-Esprit, près de Bayonne, et finalement embarquée de force pour Québec. Son retour en France coincide avec sa Téchouva, retour aux sources du judaisme. Dans Les Aventures étranges et surprenantes d'Esther Brandeau, moussaillon (2014), Susan Glickman représente Esther Brandeau en Schéhérazade juive racontant ses aventures rocambolesques devant des auditoires fascinés. Dans les trois récits, le voyage maritime, l'exil et la quête de l'identité se rejoignent.
Selon Bernard Andrès, un nouveau discours historique se profile à travers l’hybridité du genre littéraire, permettant de mettre en scène savoir et non savoir, doutes et certitudes. Reprenant la réflexion d'Andrès à propos des « aventuriers des Lumières » et des « héroïnes de la marginalité » au Canada, nous verrons que, par-delà les représentations diverses d'Esther Brandeau, son séjour à Québec dévoile les enjeux identitaires de la Nouvelle France catholique d'avant la Conquête anglaise, revêtant sa représentation d'une dimension sociocritique.
Sivane Hirsch and Denis Jeffrey
Teaching critical thinking about religion in pluralistic societies as a condition for an Intercultural Education
The Quebec Education Program recognizes society’s pluralism both as a fact and as a value school should promote. This pluralism is indeed not only the result of an ongoing immigration process but also an important part of Canada’s foundation history. The Ethics and religious culture program (ERC) offers to develop three competencies that are particularly in line with this question, by bringing students to 1) Reflect on ethical questions; 2) Demonstrate an understanding of the phenomenon of religion, and 3) Engage in dialogue. Thus, the program aims to bring the students to “recognize the other” and to “pursuit […] the common good”, while bringing together “two essentially distinct dimensions of the social reality, each of which is reflected in diverse forms of expression that are particularly sensitive” (PFEQ, 2008, p.1). However, the main aspect of the Ethics component – critical thinking – is absent from the Religious culture one. Indeed, the program suggests that a “comprehensive approach” will better serve the goal of recognizing the other.
In this paper, we first propose to clarify what does “critical thinking” applies in school and how it can contribute to the study of religion. Through the analysis of the ERC program (Jeffrey and Hirsch, 2017), as well as research data about teachers’ practices and professional stance when they should discuss acute political issues in the classroom, we will examine not only the challenges teachers face when teaching about religion in a pluralistic society, but also the pedagogical interest of teaching it using a critical approach. Finally, through a comparative approach with the Israeli case study, we will discuss the benefits and challenges of our approach in a society that is simultaneously a pluralistic and a segregated one. Indeed, in such a context, students rarely encounter the “other” outside of their textbooks and learning about other religions represents in many aspects the only way to discover others’ history and culture. A balanced approach may become a real pedagogical contribution to the “pursuit of the common good.”
Sivane Hirsch and Lotem Perry-Hazan
Educational innovation in Haredi communities: The case studies of after-school programs in Quebec and the National-Haredi stream in Israel
Many countries in the world struggle with the regulation of Haredi educational practices, which sanctify the exclusive focus on religious studies in boys’ schools. Analysis of the regulation in different counties showed that mechanisms of enforcement, such as cancelling school licenses, are not effective (Perry-Hazan, 2015; Hirsch et al., 2016). It is crucial, therefore, to explore grassroots and bottom-up changes in Haredi education in order to understand the social dynamics that may promote the right of Haredi boys to basic secular education.
The proposed paper will analyze and compare two case studies that exemplify educational innovation in Haredi communities. The first case study is the establishment of after-school programs for Haredi children in Quebec, Canada, which provides them with high-quality secular studies. The second case study is the establishment of the National-Haredi Education stream in Israel that gather fully funded public schools obligated to meet the curricular requirements of public education.
Through the analysis of interviews with Ministry of Education officials, principals and teachers, as well as various documents, we propose to examine the role of the state and the Haredi community in promoting, or hindering, the innovative educational frameworks. (1) The role of the state. In Quebec, a recent amendment to the Education act enables the Haredi community to maintain the yeshivas by defining the students as homeschoolers, putting the burden for ensuring the children’s secular education on the communities. In Israel, the state’s role was more prominent. It established a new stream of public schools and a new Haredi district to supervise these schools. In both cases, the state supports the innovation in different ways but tends to prefer conservative Haredi voices over more liberal groups within the Haredi community. (2) The role of the Haredi community. In both cases, information about the innovative educational framework only spread by word to mouth. This approach allowed slowly gaining the communities’ trust but also left the marketing field open to the resistance of the Haredi media and political leaders.
Tali Heiman, Dana Kaspi-Tsahor, Dorit Olenik-Shemesh, Laura King, Catherine Fichten, Mary Jorgensen, Alice Havel
The Use of Personal Technologies in the Classroom: Canadian and Israeli Perspectives
For many students with disabilities access to their personal technologies, typically smartphones or tablets, is essential to ensure their full inclusion in the classroom. Research shows that students, in general, like courses where they are allowed to use their personal technologies in class. Research has also shown that multitasking in class is associated with poorer grades and that open devices can distract students nearby. Numerous professors are prohibiting the use of such technologies, even though digital literacy is often an expected graduation outcome. Therefore, it is important to know:
1. Why do students with different disabilities want to use their personal technologies in the classroom? Does this differ for students without disabilities?
2. Why do some professors prohibit the use of personal technologies in the classroom? What could professors do to allow students to use their personal technologies in the classroom in appropriate ways?
3. Do social science professors engage in class activities that require the use of students' personal technologies? Which ones?
The research involved 4 focus groups consisting of 6 to 8 participants per group: students with disabilities, students without disabilities, professors, and professionals who provide support to students. The learning strategists, information and communication (ICT) experts and disability service providers in the professional’s group were included to bring in a perspective that is not traditionally seen in research.
The focus groups consisted of social science students who had already completed at least one term and who were currently registered in a variety of courses with a number of different professors. The professors, like the students, were all from social science disciplines, each one representing a different content area such as psychology, business administration and religion. A coding manual and inter-rater reliability were used to analyze the results.
The findings provide an increased understanding of the needs of students with different disabilities for using personal technologies in class as well as an increased understanding of the concerns of professors, professionals, and students (with and without disabilities) about the use of personal technologies in class. Comparing Israeli and Canadian perspectives provides a richness to the data.
Uri Sternberg, Dalia Velan
Is Innovation the Same Everywhere? Differences between Israel and Canada
The term innovation comes from the Latin word IN-NOVUS, which means into new, and has been considering as a way of generating profits (Schumpeter 1934), as well as creating and maintaining competitive advantages (Hamel 1998).
A review of international innovation indexes shows significant gaps between Canada and Israel. According to the Bloomberg Innovation Index (2015), Israel is significantly ahead of Canada in two sub-indices: Research & Development and Research Personal. The Global Innovation Index (2018) shows a similar picture. Canada is ranked 10th and Israel 19th in the Innovation input sub-index, however, the ratio is reversed in the innovation output sub-index (Israel is ranked 11th, while Canada ranked 26th). Looking at the Global Competitiveness Index (2018) shows an advantage for Canada in the sub-indices Basic Requirements and Efficiency Enhancers, as opposed to an advantage for Israel in the sub-index Innovation and Sophistication Factors, due, among other things, extreme gap in the Capacity for Innovation. These gaps sharpen the hypothesis that innovation is not a direct result of the amount of inputs to create innovation but is also influenced by additional variables.
Getz and Robinson (2003) argue that innovations come from workers. We therefore sought to examine differences between workers in the two different cultures to explain the gaps in innovation output. An examination of the cultural dimensions of each country (Hofstede 1983), according to the latest version of the data, shows that Israel differs from Canada in two dimensions. Israel is significantly lower than Canada on Power Distance, and significantly higher than Canada on Uncertainty Avoidance.
Previous studies support significant relationships between these cultural dimensions and innovation. Lundvall (1992) found that innovation is an interactive process that requires communication and interaction between workers, which can explain the advantage of low-power distance. Khalil and Marouf (2017) found a link between uncertainty avoidance and readiness to adopt an information economy.
This study aims to develop a model that considers the cultural dimensions and suggests ways to stimulate innovation, while adapting to the unique characteristics of the workers' country, based on relationships found in a variety of research in the field of innovation. Although at this stage only preliminary findings were collected, it appears that mapping research findings into practical recommendations for promoting innovation while adapting to the unique characteristics of the workers' country has the potential to make a significant contribution.
Uri Yanay
Victim Offender Conferencing:Canadian and Israeli attempts to pursue justice
People commit crimes. If apprehended, they appear in court to be tried by a professional judge. In most cases, both defendant and the crime victim(s) feel that they had no 'voice' in the process, and hence, they did not 'have their day in court'. Indeed, the court practiced law but not pursue justice.
In Canada, a Yukon judge, Barry Stuart, realized that judging people from the Bench is ineffective. He decided to invite all people concerned to a circle and together discuss ways to solve the personal/community conflict that emerged following a crime committed. His initiative proved both effective in reducing re-offending, and furthermore, having voice at the circle meant that Justice was done.
Since the early 1990s, In Israel too, when a defendant, appearing in court accepts responsibility for a crime committed, more and more judges ask if that person prefers to stand trial or, alternatively, to meet his/her crime victim and discuss ways to solve the conflict.
If the defendant decides to do so, the Probation Services will set a conference where the offender and the victims will discuss ways to solve the conflict and prepare a 'Restorative Agreement' to be presented in court. The court may accept this Agreement as its verdict. The process is voluntary and hence empowers both the offender and his/her crime victim. They negotiated ways to solve the conflict and heal relations.
Negotiating and pursuing 'Restorative Justice' on the community level has become a socio-legal issue in both Canada and Israel. The paper will discuss the case and highlight the Canadian and Israeli experiences.
Wayne Horowitz
The Tukudh Bible of Archdeacon Robert McDonald and Sumerian tu-ta-ti: Learning to Read and Write in Arctic Canada and the Ancient Near East
For the past decade, the Gwich’in Ethno-Astronomy Project has been conducting research into the traditional astronomy of the Gwich’in First Nation of the Yukon and Northwest Territories. A preliminary overview of this project was presented in a paper at the 15th Conference in Canadian Studies, and our article relating to this project will appears in the current issue of the journal Arctic Anthropology: The Gwich’in Boy in the Moon and Arctic Astronomy. The current paper reports on an area of research interest that has developed as a “side-effect,” of our main study, namely, the invention of a written form of the Gwich’in Language in the late 19 th century for Bible study. In this paper, we will briefly present the 19 th century Tukudh Bible and Religious Writings of Archdeacon McDonald, and compare his method of teaching of reading and writing, with that practiced in Ancient Babylonia some 4,000 years earlier. The paper will conclude with a consideration of the relevance of the Babylonian materials, and McDonald’s innovation in Gwich’in communication in the 19th century for the 21st century north.