Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

News from Canada

• Mark Carney leads Liberals to election victory

News from Berkeley

• Faculty affiliate Alison Gopnik elected to National Academy of Sciences

Upcoming Events

• Student Research Showcase: Canadian Multiculturalism in a Global Context

External Events

• Canadian Films at CAAMFest 2025

NEWS FROM CANADA

Mark Carney Leads Liberals to Election Victory

Prime minister Mark Carney led the Liberal Party to its fourth consecutive electoral victory last week, in one of the most dramatic political comebacks in Canadian history. Only a couple months ago, the Liberal Party seemed destined for a historic wipeout. Instead, the Liberal Party won its highest number of seats in ten years, although it ended up a few seats short of an outright majority.

The election overall was marked by the collapse of support for Canada’s smaller parties, as voters polarized between the Liberals and the Conservatives. Both the Liberals and Conservatives increased their number of seats and share of the total vote. Both parties won their highest percent of the vote share in decades: the Liberals won 43% of the vote to the Conservatives’ 41%. And the Conservatives actually gained more new seats than the Liberals (23 vs. 17), with some inroads in Toronto. Nevertheless, it was a disappointing result for the Conservatives, who held a 27-point polling lead over the Liberals only a few months ago.

In a historic first, two incumbent leaders of major parties lost their own seats. The most notable loss was for Conservative PM candidate Pierre Poilievre, who was ousted from the Ottawa-area seat he had held for two decades by a Liberal challenger. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh likewise lost re-election to a Liberal candidate in Metro Vancouver. And Green Party co-chair Jonathan Pedneault resigned from party leadership after a fifth-place finish in Montreal failed to win him a seat for a second consecutive election.

The biggest loser of the night was the NDP, traditionally Canada’s third party. The party had its worst-ever federal results with a loss of 17 seats, including Singh’s, leaving just seven NDP MPs in Parliament. As a result, the NPD lost its official party status for the first time since 1993. Singh took responsibility for the poor showing, and resigned as party leader. The silver lining for the party is that the Liberals’ failure to win a majority means that the NDP may hold the balance of power in the new Parliament.

As for Poilievre, he may soon be back in Ottawa. He recently announced plans to run for a new seat in a friendlier Alberta riding after another MP announced he would step down to open up a seat for him. Poilievre is almost certain to win this election, as his new district voted over 80% for the Conservatives.

Image: Canadian Studies community members watch live results come in at last week’s election watch party.

NEWS FROM BERKELEY

Faculty Affiliate Alison Gopnik Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Canadian Studies faculty affiliate Alison Gopnik was one of eight UC Berkeley faculty elected to the National Academy of Sciences last week. The Academy is a congressionally chartered institution that provides guidance to the government on science and technology. Membership is one of the highest honors accorded to scientists in the United States, and recognizes individuals who have made outstanding and continuing contributions to science.

Gopnik is a professor in the Department of Psychology and a preeminent developmental psychologist. Her research focuses on “theory of mind” – how we come to understand our own minds and those of others – and she was one of the first cognitive scientists to conduct studies in the field. Her research has focused on how children learn to understand their own minds and how they make sense of the world around them. She has conducted research to mathematically model how children learn, and has applied her findings to artificial intelligence. She appeared as a guest on KQED Forum last week, to argue for the importance of caregiving to society.

Gopnik was raised in Montreal, where both of her parents were professors at McGill University. She received her BA in psychology and philosophy from McGill, and a doctorate in experimental psychology from Oxford. She taught at the University of Toronto before joining the UC Berkeley faculty in 1988.

UPCOMING EVENTS

If you require an accommodation to participate in an event below, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible.

Tuesday, May 6 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

Learn about the research Canadian Studies funds through our Edward E. Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowships, as recipients present overviews of their projects. Speakers will evaluate the success of Canada’s multicultural model in an international context, considering the integration of new immigrants, Quebec, and Indigenous nations.

The Role of Migration Destination Contexts in Lebanese Transnational Voting Across Canada, the USA, & the UAE

Nadia Almasalkhi, PhD student, Sociology

External voting has become an increasingly significant avenue for transnational political engagement, yet participation remains uneven across diasporic communities. This comparative study examines how host-country contexts shaped diasporic electoral mobilization in Lebanon’s 2018 and 2022 parliamentary elections, focusing on the Lebanese diaspora in Canada (Ontario and Quebec), the United States (California and Michigan), and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Abu Dhabi). Drawing on 112 semi-structured interviews, this research analyzes how national immigration regimes, political systems, local community composition, and consular practices influenced voter participation, mobilization strategies, and barriers to electoral engagement.

Public Reason and Canada’s Constitutional Crisis

Britt Leake, PhD candidate, Political Science

Britt’s research examines the conditions under which democracy succeeds or fails in societies with extensive ethnolinguistic or religious diversity. Britt will explore Canada’s failed constitutional reform efforts in the 1980s and 1990s the through the lens of the Habermas-Rawls debate on public reason, a concept in political philosophy examining the circumstances under which citizens divided by different worldviews can endorse a shared constitutional order. Why did several ideologically distinct attempts at consensus all fail to gain legitimacy with key political constituencies? Britt argues that the key to real constitutional consensus might be the pursuit of urgent, shared interests. Canada’s relative stability and lack of external threats in the late twentieth century made it harder to articulate the shared interests needed to overcome cultural divides, in contrast to times when the threat of American expansionism drove Canadians towards unity.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Canadian Films at CAAMFest 2025

May 8-11 | San Francisco, CA | Buy tickets

Four Canadian films will be screened at this year’s CAAMFest, the nation’s leading showcase for Asian-American films hosted by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM). The films include:

• Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama, a documentary chronicling the journey of a Japanese-Canadian photographer from the Civil Rights-era US South to Vancouver’s former Japantown.
• Made in Ethiopia, a documentary exploring the impact of a new Chinese factory on a rural Ethiopian farming community.
• Mongrels, a drama that follows a Korean family that immigrates to the Canadian prairies amidst a troubling feral canine infestation.
• A Stone’s Throw, which follows Amine, a Palestinian elder, through two exiles from Haifa to Beirut to a Gulf oil platform.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Upcoming Events

• Panel Discussion: 2025 Canadian Federal Election

• 2025 Canadian Federal Election Watch Party

Other Events

• A Shifting Global Order: Unpacking US-Canada Relations in Uncertain Times

• Superintelligent Agents Pose Catastrophic Risks: Can Scientist AI Offer a Safer Path? (Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture)

• Francophonie nord-américaine : entre diversité et fierté linguistique

UPCOMING EVENTS

If you require an accommodation to participate in an event below, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible.

Wed., April 16 | 12:30 pm | IGS Library, 109 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

Canadian Studies invites you to join us Wednesday for a lively panel discussion on Canada’s upcoming Federal elections. Representatives from Canada’s major political parties will discuss key issues affecting the election landscape, and how developments in the United States have radically shifted the dynamics of the race. Panelists include:

Justin Meyers, a Senior Policy Advisor at Nelson Mullins. He works as a lobbyist in Washington, DC, focusing on US-Canada trade and energy issues.

David Murray, who served as Director of Policy for Conservative PM candidate Pierre Poilievre. He is Senior Vice President at One Persuasion, a national political strategy firm.

Cheryl Oates, who served as deputy chief of staff to Alberta premier Rachel Notley and has worked as a campaign manager for the NDP in Alberta and Saskatchewan. She leads the Western Canada practice for the strategy firm gt&co.

Jordan O’Brien, a cofounder and partner of the public relations and consulting firm Porter O’Brien. He worked for the Government of New Brunswick for ten years, including as chief of staff and deputy minister in the Office of the Premier.

Dr. Tamara Small, a professor of political science at the University of Guelph. She is a leading expert in Canadian politics, with a research focus on digital politics.

This event is cosponsored by the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco, The Porter O’Brien Agency, and the Institute of Governmental Studies.

Mon., April 28 | 5:00 pm | IGS Library, 109 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

Join friends from the Bay Area’s Canadian community for a live viewing party as we await results from Canada’s 45th Federal general election. Who will be the next Prime Minister, and what’s in store for US-Canada relations? Come and exchange predictions and punditry with others who share a passion for Canadian politics! We’ll provide refreshments and expert commentary. This event is open to all, but RSVPs are required.

This event is cosponsored by the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco and the Institute of Governmental Studies.

OTHER EVENTS

A Shifting Global Order: Unpacking US-Canada Relations in Uncertain Times

Tues., April 15 | 2:00 pm PT | Online | RSVP

In an era marked by geopolitical friction and economic uncertainty, the relationship between the United States and Canada stands at a critical juncture. In this thought-provoking discussion, speakers will discuss the historical foundations and contemporary tensions shaping this complex bilateral relationship through a global studies lens. The program offers essential insights into how international dynamics, economic policies, and historical contexts intersect to shape bilateral relations, providing an essential forum for understanding the stakes of cross-border diplomacy.

Speakers include Laurie Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University (WWU); and Andrew Holman, director of Canadian Studies at Bridgewater State University.

This talk is sponsored by the Global Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh and the Border Policy Research Institute at WWU.

Superintelligent Agents Pose Catastrophic Risks: Can Scientist AI Offer a Safer Path? | Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture

Tues., April 15 | 4:00 pm | Calvin Lab | RSVP

The leading AI companies are increasingly focused on building generalist AI agents: systems that can autonomously plan, act, and pursue goals across almost all tasks that humans can perform. Despite how useful these systems might be, unchecked AI agency poses significant risks to public safety and security, ranging from misuse by malicious actors to a potentially irreversible loss of human control. In this talk, Yoshua Bengio will discuss how these risks arise from current AI training methods.

Following the precautionary principle, Bengio and his colleagues see a strong need for safer, yet still useful, alternatives to the current agency-driven trajectory. Accordingly, they propose as a core building block for further advances the development of a non-agentic AI system that is trustworthy and safe by design, which they call Scientist AI. This talk will be followed by a panel discussion from 5-6 p.m.

Yoshua Bengio is a full professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montréal, as well as the founder and scientific director of Mila and the scientific director of IVADO. He also holds a Canada CIFAR AI chair. Considered one of the world’s leaders in artificial intelligence and deep learning, he is the recipient of the 2018 A.M. Turing Award, considered the “Nobel Prize of computing.” He is a fellow of both the U.K.’s Royal Society and the Royal Society of Canada, an officer of the Order of Canada, a knight of the Legion of Honor of France, and a member of the U.N.’s Scientific Advisory Board for Independent Advice on Breakthroughs in Science and Technology.

This talk is sponsored by the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing.

Francophonie nord-américaine : entre diversité et fierté linguistique

Jeudi, 17 avril | 16:00 HAE | En ligne | RSVP

The American Council for Québec Studies, en partenariat avec le Centre de la francophonie des Amériques, vous invite à un webinaire sur la langue et la diversité linguistique avec Bianca Richard et Gabriel Robichaud.

Peut-on imaginer qu’une comédienne acadienne et qu’un comédien acadien, vedettes d’une série à succès (À la valdrague), primés en théâtre et en littérature, puissent parler mal ou ressentir de l’insécurité linguistique?

Dans Parler mal, Bianca Richard et Gabriel Robichaud explorent cette « malédiction » et se penchent sur l’état de l’expression de la langue franco-canadienne, plus particulièrement acadienne. Ne manquez pas cette occasion d’échanger sur la vitalité et les défis du français en Amérique du Nord.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

WEBSITE | EMAIL | DONATE

Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Local News

• Bay Area Canadians voice frustration with Trump’s treatment of Canada

News from Canada

• Canada warns US-bound travellers of heightened border enforcement

Upcoming Events

• Generating Sustainable Indigenous AI

• Panel Discussion: 2025 Canadian Federal Election

Other Events

• Holloway Poetry Series: Cecily Nicholson

• Superintelligent Agents Pose Catastrophic Risks: Can Scientist AI Offer a Safer Path? (Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture)

LOCAL NEWS

Bay Area Canadians Voice Frustration with Trump’s Treatment of Canada

Local Canadians got a chance to express their opinions on the Trump’s treatment of their home country on KQED’s Forum, a local radio call-in news show. In an episode titled “Canadians to Trump: We Are Not Having It“, host Mina Kim was joined by Zack Beauchamp, a Canada-based correspondent for Vox, and Vjosa Isai, a New York Times reporter based in Toronto.

The guests discuss outrage across Canada to what most perceive as unprovoked bullying by Trump, including belittling the country and its leaders, levying tariffs on Canadian exports, and even questioning its very sovereignty. They describe how widespread anger at the United States has catalyzed into a surge in Canadian nationalism. Canadian citizens – and even some friends of Canada abroad – are engaged in actions from a “Buy Canadian” movement and boycotts of US goods, to cancelling travel to the United States. Locals who called into the program, including both Bay Area Canadians and allies, were highly sympathetic to Canada and expressed concern over the recent deterioration in US-Canada relations.

NEWS FROM CANADA

Canada Warns US-Bound Travellers of Heightened Border Enforcement

The Government of Canada recently issued a travel advisory for the United States, warning that customs agents may demand to search traveller’s electronic devices when entering the country, and that failure to comply with border agents may result in detention.

The updated section on “Entry and exit requirements” warns as follows:

“Individual border agents often have significant discretion in making those determinations. U.S. authorities strictly enforce entry requirements. Expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices. Comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities. If you are denied entry, you could be detained while awaiting deportation.”

This warning comes soon after the US announced that as of April, it would begin enforcing an existing law in April that requires foreign nationals, including Canadians, to register if they plan to stay in the US for more than 30 days.

These tightened regulations come amid a massive drop in border crossings as Canadians forgo travel to the US. In February, border officials recorded a decrease of almost half a million fewer travellers compared to the same month in 2024, representing a 15% drop in traffic. The numbers represent the lowest daily crossings since the COVID-19 border closures.

Image: US-Canada border crossing by dherrera_96 on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

UPCOMING EVENTS

If you require an accommodation to participate in an event below, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible.

Generating Sustainable Indigenous AI

Friday, April 11 | 4:00 pm | UC Berkeley | RSVP

Michael Running Wolf and Caroline Running Wolf, co-founders of First Languages AI Reality (FLAIR) will discuss their work to revitalize endangered Indigenous languages through artificial intelligence (AI) and immersive technology. The project is housed at Mila, Canada’s foremost AI research institute. FLAIR partners with multiple Indigenous communities across the Americas to drive the next chapter in Indigenous language reclamation. In addition, the project envisions a future where Indigenous people attain technological sovereignty while addressing data ownership issues and systemic barriers to Indigenous AI. Their work researching an automatic speech recognition system for highly polysynthetic languages has been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2024-25 The Tech for Global Good award and the Patrick J. McGovern AI for Humanity Prize.

About the Speakers

Michael Running Wolf (Northern Cheyenne and Lakota) was raised in a rural prairie village in Montana with intermittent water and electricity. Naturally, he has a Master of Science in computer science, was an engineer at Amazon’s Alexa, and former faculty at Northeastern University. Michael is an AI ethicist who envisions an Indigenous future where Indigenous communities, alongside reclaiming their languages, attain technological sovereignty while addressing data ownership and systemic barriers to Indigenous AI. He co-founded and is Board President of IndigiGenius, a nonprofit in the USA dedicated to increasing the representation of Indigenous people in computer science. Among other awards, Michael has received an MIT Solve Fellowship, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and the Centri Tech Social Justice Innovation Award. He is currently pursuing his PhD at McGill University.

Caroline Running Wolf, née Old Coyote (Crow) is a language activist and XR producer dedicated to supporting Indigenous languages and data sovereignty. Caroline serves on multiple advisory boards where she champions the inclusion of Indigenous knowledges. As co-author of the Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Position Paper and in speaking engagements, Caroline is an advocate for Indigenous data sovereignty, data justice, and AI ethics. She co-founded and serves as treasurer of IndigiGenius. Her PhD research at the University of British Columbia partners with Kwakwaka’wakw communities and explores applications of immersive technologies (AR/VR/XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance Indigenous language and culture reclamation.

This event is cosponsored by the Language Revitalization Working Group.

Wed., April 16 | 12:30 pm | IGS Library, Philosophy Hall | RSVP

Canadian Studies invites you to join us next week for a lively panel discussion on Canada’s upcoming Federal elections. Representatives from Canada’s major political parties will discuss key issues affecting the election landscape, and how developments in the United States have radically shifted the dynamics of the race. Panelists include:

Justin Meyers, a Senior Policy Advisor at Nelson Mullins. He works as a lobbyist in Washington, DC, focusing on US-Canada trade and energy issues.

David Murray, who served as Director of Policy for Conservative PM candidate Pierre Poilievre. He is Senior Vice President at One Persuasion, a national political strategy firm.

Cheryl Oates, who served as deputy chief of staff to Alberta premier Nachel Notley and has worked as a campaign manager for the NDP in Alberta and Saskatchewan. She leads the Western Canada practice for the strategy firm gt&co.

Jordan O’Brien, a cofounder and partner of The Porter O’Brien Agency, a public relations and consulting firm. He worked for the Government of New Brunswick for ten years, including as chief of staff and deputy minister in the Office of the Premier.

Dr. Tamara Small, a professor of political science at the University of Guelph. She is a leading expert in Canadian politics, with a research focus on digital politics.

This event is cosponsored by The Porter O’Brien Agency.

OTHER EVENTS

Holloway Poetry Series: Cecily Nicholson

Thurs., April 10 | 5:30 pm | 315 Wheeler Hall

The UC Berkeley Department of English invites you to a reading with this year’s Holloway Lecturer in the Practice of Poetry, Cecily Nicholson.

Cecily Nicholson is an assistant professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. She is the author of four poetry books, and her work has received awards including BC’s Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry, and the inaugural Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading Award from the Poetry in Canada Society. Her most recent work, Crowd Source, considers the diurnal movement of crows. Her poetry addresses issues of social and environmental justice, including the displacement of Black and Indigenous Canadians.

Superintelligent Agents Pose Catastrophic Risks: Can Scientist AI Offer a Safer Path? | Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture

Tues., April 15 | 4:00 pm | Calvin Lab | RSVP

The leading AI companies are increasingly focused on building generalist AI agents: systems that can autonomously plan, act, and pursue goals across almost all tasks that humans can perform. Despite how useful these systems might be, unchecked AI agency poses significant risks to public safety and security, ranging from misuse by malicious actors to a potentially irreversible loss of human control. In this talk, Yoshua Bengio will discuss how these risks arise from current AI training methods.

Following the precautionary principle, Bengio and his colleagues see a strong need for safer, yet still useful, alternatives to the current agency-driven trajectory. Accordingly, they propose as a core building block for further advances the development of a non-agentic AI system that is trustworthy and safe by design, which they call Scientist AI. This talk will be followed by a panel discussion from 5-6 p.m.

Yoshua Bengio is a full professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montréal, as well as the founder and scientific director of Mila and the scientific director of IVADO. He also holds a Canada CIFAR AI chair. Considered one of the world’s leaders in artificial intelligence and deep learning, he is the recipient of the 2018 A.M. Turing Award, considered the “Nobel Prize of computing.” He is a fellow of both the U.K.’s Royal Society and the Royal Society of Canada, an officer of the Order of Canada, a knight of the Legion of Honor of France, and a member of the U.N.’s Scientific Advisory Board for Independent Advice on Breakthroughs in Science and Technology.

This talk is sponsored by the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

WEBSITE | EMAIL | DONATE