The purpose of this research was to understand an indigenous perspective on the development and commercialization of non-timber forest products, such as medicines and foods, in Pikangikum First Nation, Northwestern Ontario, Canada. Framed by a research agreement between Pikangikum First Nation and the University of Manitoba, this collaborative research was based on participant observation, field trips, semi-structured interviews, and community workshops. The appropriate development and commercialization of Anishinaabe mushkeekeeh (medicine) and meecheem (food) requires the guidance of community Elders, Anishinaabe knowledge, and traditional teachings. The community is cautiously interested in developing collaborative, diligent, and culturally respectful partnerships that interface knowledge systems. Benefit sharing means the joint ownership of intellectual property and financial benefits, developing employment and capacity-building opportunities for community members, and planning products for community use. This thesis offers a community perspective on how NTFPs might be researched, developed and commercialized in joint and mutually beneficial partnerships with a First Nation.

Australia has a crop research system with higher research intensity than exists internationally. Motivated to improve R&D policy in Canada, this dissertation focuses on the Australian End Point Royalty (EPR) system for wheat and addresses four principal questions: (1) How was the Australian system created and how does it work? (2) How do public, producer and private ownership of breeding programs affect the pricing of varieties? (3) How do EPR rates affect wheat variety adoption? (4) Finally, how would uniform EPR rates, similar to those used in France, affect variety selection, total production and revenue if used in the Australian market? In addressing the first question I use existing literature and interviews with prominent personnel in the Australian wheat breeding system, including management of InterGrain, AGT, DAFWA, GRDC and others. Interviews were conducted during field study in Australia in 2011. In addressing the second question I employ a horizontal location model to analyze three game theoretic scenarios of a two firm oligopoly market with private, public and producer owned-breeding companies. The results show public and producer ownership of one of the wheat breeding programs reduces price level relative to private only ownership. I derive a novel result showing that when competing with private firms who must price above marginal cost, the public firm should also price above marginal cost in order to maximize total industry surplus. In addressing the third question I develop and estimate an econometric wheat variety adoption model for Western Australia. I find EPR rates have a negative inelastic, statistically significant impact on the adoption of varieties. Finally, in addressing the last question, I use the econometric model to simulate the adoption of Australian wheat varieties, given a counterfactual of revenue neutral uniform EPR rates. The uniform EPR rates speed up both the adoption and dis-adoption of varieties, thereby increasing weighted average yield and total production. The value of the increase in value of production exceeds the revenue for breeders under varying EPR rates, suggesting uniform EPR system may be an attractive alternative to varying EPR rates.

Where parties are married in community of property, debts are incurred by the parties and not by the joint estate. Each spouse is liable for debt incurred by either spouse. A creditor is, therefore, entitled to claim from joint estate of both spouses (as co debtors). Such an estate includes not only the spouse's undivided interest in the joint estate but also any and all separate property that falls outside the joint estate. Once the joint estate is sequestrated, both spouses become "insolvent debtors" and consequently the property (including separate property) of both spouses is available to creditors. The lnsolvency Act, as opposed to the Matrimonial Property Act, makes no provision for the recognition or sequestration of 'separate property". Although an estate is sequestrated, it is the debtor who is insolvent. A debtor (married in community of property) who possesses "separate property" is on sequestration of the joint estate insolvent in relation to both his or her undivided interest in the joint estate as well as any "separate property". But is this correct? Ample provision is made by various statutes for the exclusion of certain property from an insolvent estate. Does this not mean that a debtor might be insolvent in relation to one estate and not insolvent in relation to the other? The estate of a partnership is, for purposes of sequestration, deemed to be a separate entity from the partners' private estates. Where the partnership fails, creditors first have recourse against the estate of the partnership where after any shortfall may be claimed from the private estates of the partners. Although the estates of partners are sequestrated simultaneously with the estate of the partnership, creditors of the partnership may not proof their claims against the estate of a partner and vice versa. Is it just and equitable that a spouse who owns separate property is treated differently from a partner who does not possess a separate estate in law from the partnership estate? A partner only has one estate - a private estate that includes his or her interest in the partnership. It is concluded that despite the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Du Plessis v Pienaar, a sense of dissatisfaction still prevails regarding the status of separate property. It is furthermore suggested that in view of the lack of provisions in the insolvency Act regarding separately owned property, the said Act be amended to provide for the specific exclusion of separate property from an insolvent joint estate. It is more advisable to provide for the exclusion of separate property from the insolvent joint estate than to provide for the simultaneous sequestration thereof. / Thesis (LL.M. (Estate Law))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

The purpose of this research was to understand an indigenous perspective on the development and commercialization of non-timber forest products, such as medicines and foods, in Pikangikum First Nation, Northwestern Ontario, Canada. Framed by a research agreement between Pikangikum First Nation and the University of Manitoba, this collaborative research was based on participant observation, field trips, semi-structured interviews, and community workshops. The appropriate development and commercialization of Anishinaabe mushkeekeeh (medicine) and meecheem (food) requires the guidance of community Elders, Anishinaabe knowledge, and traditional teachings. The community is cautiously interested in developing collaborative, diligent, and culturally respectful partnerships that interface knowledge systems. Benefit sharing means the joint ownership of intellectual property and financial benefits, developing employment and capacity-building opportunities for community members, and planning products for community use. This thesis offers a community perspective on how NTFPs might be researched, developed and commercialized in joint and mutually beneficial partnerships with a First Nation.

While the outright privatization of water services has declined globally, it has been replaced with public-private partnerships (P3s) in the government procurement and delivery of water services, and increasingly at the local level. This research finds that such initiatives are on the rise in Canada, and considering the overall record of failure that has amounted from varied types of water privatization thus far, it seeks to analyze this expanding waterscape from a critical perspective. More specifically, by historically situating the privatization of Canadian municipal water in a political-economic context that identifies its relation to contemporary (neoliberal) capitalism, this research examines how the focused state commitment to water P3s is indicative of the processes of neoliberalization. I argue that regulatory and budgetary changes since the economic crisis of 2008 have formed an institutionalized policy apparatus that essentially forces needy municipalities into long-term contracts with private firms, therefore establishing sustained sites for capital accumulation. This thesis concludes with a discussion concerning the implications that such a “partnership” will have for municipal autonomy, organized labour, and the environment, particularly in light of the intensifying state focus on international free trade. / Graduate / 0626 / 0629

There are currently over 300 Confucius Institutes in nearly 100 countries around the world. The fast rise of the Confucius Institute since its inception in 2004 has attracted attention from both political and academic arenas. Recent research on the Confucius Institute has focused on China's goal to increase its soft power through this establishment. The objective of this Master's thesis is to explore the nature of the partnership between Chinese and Canadian universities through the Confucius Institute. Specifically, three Canadian Confucius Institutes are selected for the case studies. This interdisciplinary research uses Constructivism from International Relations and Internationalization of Higher Education as the theoretical framework for analysis. Data collection involves interviewing key administrative staff from each site along with a review of secondary resources such as online and print literature. Significance of key findings and suggestions for future research are provided in the conclusion of this thesis.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the formalization of inter-organizational partnerships and collaboration among staff members working together across primary care, mental health and addition organizations to provide services to adults with complex mental health and addiction needs. Phase I of the study provided an environmental scan of existing partnerships among Family Health Teams (FHTs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs), and the Mental Health and/or Addiction (MHA) organizations they partner with, in the province of Ontario (Canada). Phase II explored the relationship between formalization and a) administrative collaboration and b) and service delivery collaboration. The hypotheses proposed that staff members who are part of formalized partnerships would report higher levels of collaboration. Phase III explored how formal and informal partnerships and collaboration are experienced by the administrative and service provider staff members who work across FHTs, CHCs and MHAs organizations. Using a mixed methods approach, data were collected using electronic surveys and telephone interviews. The results of Phase I indicated that FHTs and CHCs in Ontario have between 1-3 partnerships with MHA organizations. Most are informal partnerships, have existed for less than 5 years, and most staff members (partners) interact on a monthly basis. The quantitative results of Phase II showed no significant relationship between formalization and either form of collaboration. The qualitative findings from Phase III provide two key contributions. First, the results of the interviews may help explain why collaboration was not higher in formalized partnerships, as demonstrated by the range of advantages and disadvantages experienced by administrators and service providers in both formal and informal partnerships. Second, the findings illuminate factors related to the process of creating and/or formalizing partnerships, suggesting that there may be other factors that mediate or have a direct impact on the relationship between formalization and collaboration. By bringing together the study findings, the study addresses a gap in the literature by proposing a pathway through which formalization may be associated with collaboration. The results of the study provide opportunities for future research to help improve the quality and accessibility of services to adults with complex mental health and addiction needs.

My dissertation is a critical ethnography of grassroots feminist agencies and immigrant organizations involved in the governance of gender violence in Toronto, Ontario. Along with examining the agencies operating on the outskirts of the law, I also observe the organizations that contract directly with the provincial government to counsel abusers prosecuted through the city’s specialized domestic violence courts. Drawing on the methodological and theoretical insights of socio-legal studies, postcolonial feminism, and governmentality scholarship, my research explores the governance of domestic violence through the community. Specifically, I examine how the voluntary sector performs the state’s work of prosecuting domestic violence, punishing offenders and building citizens. My research reveals the significant influence that community organizations exert on the prosecution of gender violence and in defining the conditions of punishment for offenders. Through court observation of Toronto’s domestic violence plea court, I show how grassroots administrative workers transform into hybrids of the prosecutor and defense within governance networks. In addition, based on interviews with service providers delivering counseling to offenders, I document how non-profit organizational habits add distinctive flavors to the administration of punishment, materializing in governing regimes that emphasize care in some contexts and discipline in others. Finally, I also explore the dual constructions of immigrant counselors as both the experts and the “others” to the nation with regards to gender violence. In contrast to assumptions of ignorance amongst the immigrant “other” in the liberal imaginary, my findings indicate that the notion of women’s empowerment is nothing new or unfamiliar within Toronto’s diasporic communities; several of the immigrant anti-violence experts involved in this research credit their politicization and training “back home” as foundational to their involvement in feminist and the anti-violence movement. These findings challenge liberal assumptions of the East as a space devoid of the cultural material of women’s empowerment, which form the backbone of Western performances of modernity.

There are currently over 300 Confucius Institutes in nearly 100 countries around the world. The fast rise of the Confucius Institute since its inception in 2004 has attracted attention from both political and academic arenas. Recent research on the Confucius Institute has focused on China's goal to increase its soft power through this establishment. The objective of this Master's thesis is to explore the nature of the partnership between Chinese and Canadian universities through the Confucius Institute. Specifically, three Canadian Confucius Institutes are selected for the case studies. This interdisciplinary research uses Constructivism from International Relations and Internationalization of Higher Education as the theoretical framework for analysis. Data collection involves interviewing key administrative staff from each site along with a review of secondary resources such as online and print literature. Significance of key findings and suggestions for future research are provided in the conclusion of this thesis.

Persons 65 years or older are the fastest growing demographic in Canada (Government of Canada, 2011) and the need for 24-hour care and LTC support will continue to rise. An association is typically drawn between death and dying and the movement into LTC homes. Leisure can alternatively be important for promoting “living” and supporting wellness in residents. The notion of “living” in LTC shifts emphasis away from illness and death to placing value on wellness. This participatory action research (PAR) study aims to understand wellness from residents’ perspectives and the role leisure plays in their wellness. PAR stakeholders (family/care partners, staff, and residents) collaboratively discuss how to best attain, interpret, and disseminate resident perspectives on wellness and required supports. The PAR process highlights the necessity for academics and practitioners to involve residents in decisions about their care experience. Guiding questions include: (1) What does wellness mean to residents living in LTC? (2) What does a ‘well’ LTC home look like to residents? (3) What is the nature of the relationship between leisure and wellness from a resident perspective? (4) How can those involved in LTC support resident wellness? From the perspectives of residents living in LTC homes, findings inform a resident wellness model and provide insights into how wellness and “well” LTC homes can be better supported. Thus, filling a gap in the literature and shifting focus to living ‘well’ in LTC.