Climate change poses numerous risks to the health of Canadians. Extreme weather events, poor air quality, and food insecurity in northern regions are likely to increase along with the increasing incidence and range of infectious diseases. In this study we identify and characterize Canadian federal, provincial, territorial and municipal adaptation to these health risks based on publically available information. Federal health adaptation initiatives emphasize capacity building and gathering information to address general health, infectious disease and heat-related risks. Provincial and territorial adaptation is varied. Quebec is a leader in climate change adaptation, having a notably higher number of adaptation initiatives reported, addressing almost all risks posed by climate change in the province, and having implemented various adaptation types. Meanwhile, all other Canadian provinces and territories are in the early stages of health adaptation. Based on publically available information, reported adaptation also varies greatly by municipality. The six sampled Canadian regional health authorities (or equivalent) are not reporting any adaptation initiatives. We also find little relationship between the number of initiatives reported in the six sampled municipalities and their provinces, suggesting that municipalities are adapting (or not adapting) autonomously.

Objectives: Unintentional injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Nunavut, where the importance of land-based activities and reliance on semi-permanent trails creates unique risk profiles. Climate change is believed to be exacerbating these risks, although no studies have quantitatively examined links between environmental conditions and injury and distress in the Canadian Arctic. We examine the correlation between environmental conditions and land-based search and rescue (SAR) incidents across Nunavut. Study design: Case studyMethods: Case data was acquired from the Canadian National Search and Rescue Secretariat. Gasoline sales from across the territory are then used to model land-use and exposure. We compare weather and ice conditions during 202 SAR incidents to conditions during 755 non-SAR days (controls) between 2013 and 2014.Results: We show daily ambient temperature, ice concentration, ice thickness, and variation in types of ice to be correlated with SAR rates across the territory during the study period.Conclusions: These conditions are projected to be affected by future climate change, which could increase demand for SAR and increased injury rates in absence of targeted efforts aimed at prevention and treatment. This study provides health practitioners and public health communities with clearer understanding to prepare, respond to, and prevent injuries across the Arctic.

Attempts to shift the ways disasters have traditionally been managed away from authoritarian, top-down approaches toward more bottom-up and inclusive processes often involve incorporating viewpoints from marginalised and vulnerable groups. Recently as part of this process, there have been calls for greater inclusion of Indigenous peoples in disaster management. In theory, this also suggests a shift in power structures, towards recognising Indigenous peoples as experts in disaster management. However, in popular imagination and policy Indigenous peoples often appear to be caricatured and misrepresented, for instance through tropes of Indigenous peoples as custodians of the environment or especially vulnerable to environmental change. These framings matter because they can result in disaster management policies and practices that do not capture Indigenous peoples’ complex realities. However, these framings have not been analysed in the context of disasters. In this article, we aim to better understand these framings through a critical discourse analysis of how Indigenous peoples in disasters are represented in the expert news media. We identify five discourses, including a dominant one of disasters as natural phenomena to be addressed through humanitarianism and technocratic interventions. Such discourses render Indigenous peoples helpless, depoliticize disasters and are justified by framing governments and NGOs as caring for Indigenous peoples. However, we also identify competing discourses that focus on systems of oppression and self-determination in disaster management. These discourse recognise disasters as political and include discussion of the role of colonialism in disaster creation. As care emerged as a means through which intervention was justified, we conclude by asking questions of who is cared for/about in disasters and how that care is performed.

In a functioning legal system, it is generally assumed, there will be settled rules governing the identification of other rules as laws applicable to the facts of cases. The task of 'doctrinal legal history', it is further assumed, is to examine the development of the rules of law identified and applied according to the settled rules. But what if there is disagreement about how rules of law should be identified and applied? The first part of this chapter provides a case study of how rules of law were identified and applied in the highest civil court in Scotland towards the end of the seventeenth century by looking at decisions relating to the strict liability of innkeepers. In the second part it is argued that the case study illustrates a continuing debate in this period over the authority to be attributed to certain sources and the appropriate approach to be taken in resolving novel questions of law. It is suggested that in seeking to make sense of the type of situation described assistance may be derived from Thomas Kuhn's account of the emergence of new research paradigms in the natural sciences.