Dear Friends,

As you may know, due to the COVID-19 situation, Raag-Rung had to postpone our 37^th annual Fundraising Dinner Concert to September 18, 2021 (see poster).

Therefore, for continuing our support for scholarships at Lakehead University and Confederation College and to the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, this year’s effort will be through the donations that may be made online at www.Raag-RungMusicCircle.com (please scroll down the Home Page and click on the Donation button at the lower right corner) or by mailing a cheque made payable to Raag-Rung Music Circle at the address given below.

Please note that in addition to the tax receipt, we will hold a draw in October to give out a professionally produced music DVD or CD to each lucky winner. These discs contain music by internationally acclaimed and highly respected musicians with recognitions and awards such as the Grammy, Bill Board’s Top Ten and Music, Juno, President of India and the prestigious Padma awards given by the Government of India to artists and individuals who have made exceptional contributions in their fields (these are similar to the Order of Canada recognitions).

A detailed catalogue of these items, subdivided into (1) Instrumental, (2) Vocal Classical and Devotional and (3) Ghazals categories, is available for your information. We request that you kindly indicate your preferred category in which your name should be included in the draw. We are pleased to inform you that some of these discs have been autographed by the legendary artists.

We thank you in advance for your support, thoughtfulness and generosity. With best wishes for safe days ahead and with warm regards.

The Raag-Rung Music Circle Team
494 Ryerson Cres.
Thunder Bay, Ont.
P7C 5R8
(807) 577 5641
www.Raag-RungMusicCircle.com

The Department of History is pleased to announce that “Toxic Time-Bomb,” Dr. Ron Harpelle’s latest environmental film, will premiere at a live-streaming event organized to mark the Journée internationale d’hommage et de soutien aux victimes de l’Agent orange, (Agent Orange Day).

August 10 is Agent Orange Day because that was the day, 59 years ago, that the United States began aerial spraying toxic herbicides in Vietnam. From 1961 to 1971, 75 million litres of these tactical herbicides were sprayed on approximately 12 percent of South and Central Vietnam and they were also used in neighbouring Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.

Nearly 5 million people were affected by the spraying during the war and children are still being born with birth defects linked to these herbicides. Today in Vietnam more than 100,000 children are the third and fourth generations of victims. Sadly, some of the Agent Orange used in Vietnam was produced in Canada and the legacy of its production haunts us still.

“Toxic Time-Bomb” is about the impact of industrial pollution and about the activists who have spent 30 years fighting to ensure that industry and government take responsibility for the destruction of the environment in and around their community. Agent Orange was produced by Uniroyal Canada in Elmira, Ont., a small farming community just outside Waterloo. In late 1989, 17 years after production stopped, Elmira was obliged to shut down its water supply because of the discovery of high levels of dangerous chemicals in the aquifer that flows under the town. The film was made with support from the Ontario Arts Council and is part of a larger co-production project with French filmmaker Sylvie Vàng Jacquemin and local filmmaker Kelly Saxberg.

The film is available in English, with French, Spanish and Vietnamese versions and will premiere on August 9 at 10:30 pm and again on August 10 at 6:00 am local time.

For details and to see the film as part of the event, look on Facebook for either the Collectif Vietnam-Dioxine or the Journée des victimes de l'agent orange. For those who miss the premiere, the film will be made available for viewing online until August 14 at Shebafilms.com.

As we prepare to welcome our new students to Lakehead University this fall, Enrolment Services – Student Awards & Financial Aid has been busy completing final reviews of entering high school student transcripts to extend final Lakehead University Entrance Scholarships Offers.

In recognition of the academic accomplishments of our students, we wanted to continue our Lakehead tradition of visiting with some of our scholars to personally deliver their official scholarship and extend warm greetings to our newest Thunderwolves. With physical distancing and safety precautions in place, 20 students welcomed the opportunity to meet with Lakehead outside, at their home doorsteps.

On Thursday July 23 and Friday July 24, Andrea Tarsitano, Vice-Provost (Students) & Registrar, and Josh Levac, Associate Registrar, Student Awards & Financial Aid, travelled to South Gillies, Shebandowan and other parts of Thunder Bay with a Lakehead swag bag and official Scholarship Offer to present.

“Along the way, we were met with excitement and enthusiasm about attending Lakehead and reminisced with many proud Lakehead Alumni reflecting back on their experiences and times as a Lakehead student,” Tarsitano says.

“During these unprecedented times, our generous scholarship offers - more than ever - can make the difference in a student attending Lakehead,” Levac says.

Take a look at some of the photos captured during our visits and the smiles shared!

Undergraduate students and staff can now request library items for contactless pickup or partial digitization in both Thunder Bay and Orillia. All requests for materials should be submitted using the library's main academic search tool, Omni. For instructions on how to place a request through Omni, visit: https://libguides.lakeheadu.ca/c.php?g=713740&p=5125693

June 15, 2020 – Thunder Bay, Ont.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research has awarded Lakehead University’s Dr. Kathryn Sinden with a $49,968 Knowledge Synthesis COVID-19 rapid response grant to spend six months developing resources to support the mental health of firefighters working during COVID-19.

Due to the important work that they perform, firefighters are often “first-on-scene” and have a higher chance of being exposed to transferable diseases including COVID-19, said Dr. Sinden, an Assistant Professor in Kinesiology.

“Researchers have found that in periods of heightened risk such as a pandemic, there are further impacts on individuals’ mental health,” she said.

“For example, following the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, front-line workers identified this event as traumatic and those who had higher risk for SARS exposure reported more post-traumatic stress injury symptoms than other workers.”

Dr. Sinden believes firefighters would have the same exposure to mental health conditions during and following the COVID-19 pandemic as other front line workers reported due to SARS.

“Consequently, in addition to known factors that increase firefighters’ risk for mental health disorders, COVID-19 has created a unique and challenging context where their risk for experiencing mental health conditions has increased,” she said.

This research will use an integrated knowledge translation approach, meaning firefighters will be embedded in the research process. As a team, they will appraise information about managing mental health from peer-reviewed academic journals, online information specific to firefighter health and general platforms, and existing guidelines provided by firefighter associations.

Dr. Sinden will use the results of this research to develop various resources that can be implemented by the firefighter community, with implications for first responder groups across Canada, to develop strategies to help them better manage their mental health and prevent illness.

“We are very pleased to have received this funding from CIHR,” said Dr. Andrew Dean, Lakehead’s Vice-President, Research and Innovation.

“This applied research project is important, timely and hopefully will yield valuable results for mental health management strategies for firefighters.”

In 2019/20, Lakehead University will receive nearly $2 million in assistance from the Research Support Fund to support the indirect costs of research, which includes costs for supporting the management of intellectual property, research and administration, ethics and regulatory compliance, research resources, and research facilities.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has 10 faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. In 2019, Maclean’s 2020 University Rankings, once again, included Lakehead University among Canada’s Top 10 primarily undergraduate universities, while Research Infosource named Lakehead 'Research University of the Year' in its category for the fifth consecutive year. Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

Undergraduate students and staff can now request library items for contactless pickup or partial digitization in both Thunder Bay and Orillia. All requests for materials should be submitted using the library's main academic search tool, Omni. For instructions on how to place a request through Omni, visit: https://libguides.lakeheadu.ca/c.php?g=713740&p=5125693.

Join the Lakehead Library for a general overview of library research, including a tour of our Omni "search everything" system. Our upcoming workshops are listed below. Click on the specific date to register. Once you register you'll receive the full meeting information.

• Thursday July 23 at 7 pm

If you require one to one research assistance, please feel free to contact the the liaison librarian for your subject area.

Due to the extraordinary situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and after careful consultation with the Korea Maritime Institute (KMI) and UArctic, the KMI have made the regretful decision to call off the physical gathering of the Korea Arctic Academy in Busan and replace it with an online course. This online course will be available for a period of eight weeks between September 9 and October 30, 2020.

The program will include online lectures on Arctic issues (given by international and Korean experts) from Arctic related organizations and research institutions in Korea. The online course has a scope of five ECTS credits and a certificate of completion will be co-issued by UArctic and KMI to participants who have successfully completed the program. 

The following eligibility criteria apply:

• 40 bachelor/master/ PhD students from UArctic member institutions in Arctic States will be selected for the program. 
• Students with an indigenous background will be given preference for the program during the selection process. The program is open to students of all academic backgrounds.
• The student should be registered at an UArctic member institution in an Arctic State for an academic degree. 
• UArctic/KMI can also select other Arctic States students to achieve an appropriate composition of the group.
• The student should have finished their second year of bachelor study.
• The student is motivated to actively participate and to enhance understanding of the Arctic and Korea.
• The student must have sufficient knowledge of English, both oral and written.

Please submit a CV (should include email address) and a motivation letter (approx. 600 words) to Laura Pudas at studyabroad@lakeheadu.ca to apply.

KMI plans to organize next year’s Korea Arctic Academy in Busan again and has the privilege to announce that the best students who complete the online course of the 6th Korea Arctic Academy will be preselected to attend the 7th Korea Arctic Academy in 2021. 

If you have questions, please contact studyabroad@lakeheadu.ca.

Congratulations to Dr. Nicolas Lépine on the publication of his new book Guerre d’Espagne et socialisme international: dernière chance pour l’ordre démocratique d’entre-deux-guerres, which has just been published by les Presses de l'Université Laval (see https://www.pulaval.com/produit/guerre-d-espagne-et-socialisme-international-derniere-chance-pour-l-ordre-democratique-d-entre-deux-guerres).

Nicolas also has a chapter coming out in the forthcoming volume International Solidarity in the Low Countries During the Twentieth Century: New Perspectives and Themes, which is scheduled for release in October.

The Office of Sustainability's spring Sustainability Newsletter is now available online.

This edition includes a reflection on how Robin Wall Kimmerer's book, Braiding Sweetgrass, can deepen our understanding of sustainability, and why it is important to embrace sustainability from multiple worldviews: "Too often, the term sustainability within and outside of universities in Canada has been shaped by white settlers, and therefore is subject to the blinders worn by those with privilege in class, sex, gender, ethnicity, ability, and so on. What would a sustainability that was shaped by multiple worldviews look like?"

There is also an article on COVID-19 and it's connections to sustainability, among other topics.

We encourage you to check it out.

If you have sustainability related research, teaching, or initiatives you would like to highlight in an upcoming newsletter, please email coordinator.sustainability@lakeheadu.ca