January 27, 2016 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Matt and Mandy Pisarek learned they were drinking water from lead pipes by accident.
Lead in the water: Tens of thousands of Canadians still drink from toxic pipes
Toronto Public Health
What do students really ask in sex ed? (And how do you answer them?)
Sept. 3, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Sex, sexuality and sexual health can be fraught topics to broach in the classroom. But much trickier than any curricular updates is answering students’ questions — the anonymous, curious, often awkwardly written queries young people submit over the course of their sex ed lessons.
Data deficit: How are Canadians coping sans long-form census?
January 30, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Canada’s long-dead long-form census is in the news again.
Liberal MP Ted Hsu’s private members bill, which proposes to bring it back but eliminate the threat of jail time for those who don’t fill out the mandatory long-form census, has brought the issue back to the fore – even though the bill has scant chance of passing when it’s put to a vote in a majority Conservative House of Commons next week.
But if Canada’s gold standard of population data’s gone for good, what does that mean for the individuals, governments, businesses, planners, health authorities (essentially, everyone) who depended on it?
Sex ed: Can Ontario give its walkman-era curriculum a 21st-Century makeover?
September 4, 2014 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Kim Martyn has a question she asks parents who may be leery of their kids getting sex education at school.
“How many of your children watch television? How many of your children have access to a computer or anything online without you sitting there?”
Health officials starved of census data pay for local info of their own
August 27, 2014 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Public health bodies across Canada, starved of census data, are paying for pricey surveys to collect their own local info but say they’re still flying blind on decisions that affect public health and taxpayer dollars.
Toronto’s Board of Health wants a supervised injection site. The province doesn’t. Now what?
Anna Mehler Paperny – Global News
Toronto’s board of health became Ontario’s first governing body to endorse supervised injection sites this week, but the momentum may stop there: The province isn’t interested.
Toronto ditches National Household Survey for historical comparisons
Anna Mehler Paperny – Global News
Statistics Canada’s National Household Survey is too unreliable to compare with previous long-form censuses, Toronto has decided.
Canada’s biggest city won’t use the new survey to inform historic trendlines unless Statistics Canada provides better technical information that puts planners more at ease.
Toronto, like other cities and a multitude of government and private organizations, relies on data from the long-form census to get a sense of where the community’s going.
At least, it used to.
Don’t compare household survey numbers to long-form census, Toronto tells city staff
Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
TORONTO – The city is cautioning its staff not to compare National Household Survey information with data from the long-form census.
“Because of the change from a mandatory to a voluntary sample, the NHS may under-report the number of people belonging to certain subgroups,” reads a briefing note being sent out to key staff members who would normally work closely with this kind of demographic information.
Household survey not worth the price: Public health body
Anna Mehler Paperny and Leslie Young, Global News
Government agencies reliant on census information may not pay for its replacement, whose numbers are less reliable and more expensive.
a business of misfits 