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CTV News
13 minutes ago
- CTV News
Air quality and extreme heat advisory in southern Quebec
Smoke from wildfires in the Canadian Prairies is causing poor air quality and reduced visibility at times. An Environment Canada advisory issued Saturday morning recommends limiting time spent outdoors. 'During periods of dense smoke, everyone is at risk, regardless of age or health,' said the advisory, which covers southern Quebec, including the Greater Montreal area, as well as the Estrie, Lanaudière, Mauricie, and Centre-du-Québec regions. Air quality could remain poor until Sunday. People with existing health conditions, seniors, pregnant women, infants, and young children should avoid strenuous outdoor activities on Saturday and Sunday. Wearing an N95 respirator mask can reduce exposure to fine particles in smoke. Consider protecting indoor air quality during episodes of poor air quality, particularly with a clean, high-quality air filter in your ventilation system. Heat warnings are also in effect in southern Quebec for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, particularly in Montreal, Laval, parts of the Laurentians, and the Montérégie region. 'The combination of maximum temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius and high humidity will bring humidex values close to 40 degrees on Sunday afternoon. Conditions will remain hot and humid until Tuesday, with nights being particularly uncomfortable with minimum temperatures remaining above 20 degrees Celsius,' said Environment and Climate Change Canada. Extreme heat can affect your health. It is recommended that you check on people who live alone and seniors during periods of extreme heat. In particular, watch for the first signs of heat exhaustion, such as headaches and dizziness, to avoid heat stroke. 'During extreme heat and poor air quality, the priority is to stay cool,' Environment Canada reminds us. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 26, 2025.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
How daytime parties are fuelled by the wellness movement and a need for community
Social Sharing Daytime parties are trending across Canada, with people trading alcohol and all-night clubbing for coffee and croissants. One such party is Croissound in Montreal, which is rethinking nightlife culture by gathering local DJs at cafés. So far, it's presented four Canadian events this year, with thousands of attendees. Its most recent party was a free, ticketed event at a popular Montreal food court. The Coffee Party, which calls itself "a global movement reimagining how people connect," has held several events in Toronto since late last year. An increasing number of these sober daytime events seem to be popping up. There have been parties in Vancouver and Edmonton, and even in places like Kazakhstan and Singapore. And in August during the National Bank Open tennis tournament, Sobeys Stadium in Toronto is playing host to a Coffee Party event with all-you-can-eat pastries and bottomless coffee for $25. WATCH | Hitting the dance floor in the daylight: Hit the club and be home by 9 p.m. 7 days ago An outgrowth of the wellness movement Daytime parties represent a shift in how wellness and community are being highlighted in a post-pandemic economy where real-life experiences are valued, experts say. Salima Jadavji, a clinical social worker, psychotherapist and podcaster, said she sees this growing interest as an outgrowth of the wellness movement and as part of a desire for in-person social experiences that are curated. "Sustainable self-care doesn't have to sound boring, it really is what brings you joy and what's good for you," she said. "These gatherings also reflect a broader cultural shift in people prioritizing and attending to their mental well-being ... people are shifting away from escapism to intentionality." WATCH | Montreal is waking up to daytime parties: Coffee, croissants and good sound — daytime parties are popping up in Montreal 3 months ago Croissound is a party from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. for all ages. Experts say this type of event without alcohol is part of a generational shift. For some, that's a move away from an alcohol-fuelled nightlife to healthier, sober daytime gatherings. "While those are the trends of what we're seeing, you can create it in any which way that you want for yourself," Jadavji said. This is also something Emily Lyons has been observing. Lyons, the founder and CEO of Femme Fatale Media, has been planning and hosting events since 2009. She started with local Toronto events but has since expanded across North America. "When we started, it was all nightclubs, nightlife, galas, things like that in the evening," she said. "But over the years, there's been a massive shift, so that's only a very small fraction of what we do now." Lyons said recent wellness trends and the move toward alcohol-free drinks have contributed to the rising popularity of daytime parties. A generational shift In a report released last October based on a 2023 survey, Statistics Canada noted that young people between the ages of 18 and 22 abstained from alcohol at a higher rate than those in older age groups, and a lower proportion of young people drank seven or more alcoholic drinks in the past week compared with older Canadians. There's also greater public awareness of the link between alcohol use and health issues, including cancer. Markus Giesler, a professor of marketing at York University's Schulich School of Business in Toronto, said younger generations seem to be less focused on alcohol consumption and more interested in gatherings that promote wellness and balance. Giesler attributes this to a decline in real, organic social encounters during the COVID-19 pandemic and to a desire for entertainment that's affordable these days. He said members of Gen Z — typically born between 1997 and 2012 — tend to spend their money on more meaningful social experiences. The rise of the gig economy means younger consumers have more flexibility with their scheduling — driving for Uber at night, for example, and using the day for social encounters, he said. Giesler said he's found that evenings aren't as focused on communal gatherings as they were in the past. "Community is valued differently than it used to be," he said. "Sunlight is the new strobe light." A shift for businesses, too These lifestyle changes are also affecting businesses. "These event spaces need to also think very differently about what parties are all about these days," Giesler said. He said he finds that younger generations have become more mindful of others who want to limit their alcohol consumption. "Different things matter now. Quality conversation is more important than the experience of clubbing," Giesler said. "Understanding these changes in consumption is the key to the event spaces and organizers of these parties," he said. "They're being shaped by, and shape this trend, I would say." Spaces for arts and crafts groups, board games and activities that bring people together are benefiting from this trend, Giesler said. Lyons, of Femme Fatale Media, said she's also found that things have changed drastically for her business, and she's no longer spending as much time tearing down events in the middle of the night. "For us in the event world, it's been a total reset," she said. "Somebody said recently that brands want to be associated with clarity, not chaos, and I loved that because I feel like the daytime events are just so much more aligned with how people actually want to live." Lyons said she's seen a redesign of nightclubs into daytime venues. One example is the Toronto Event Centre — formerly Muzik nightclub — which now hosts everything from corporate events and weddings to product launches and cocktail receptions. Lyons, who's worked with the venue for more than 15 years, said it's adapted to changing times and also hosts wellness-focused daytime coffee events because the late-night scene wasn't drawing the same crowds as before. One of her other companies, Lyons Elite, a matchmaking service, is also changing the way it operates to accommodate this shift. "For years, we hosted singles events in the evenings — rooftop mixers, cocktail-style parties — but we started seeing a growing desire for connection without the hangover, so we began testing daytime formats: brunches, coffee meetups, more casual morning networking events," she said. Lyons said she believes more businesses are going to be built around what she calls a new ecosystem. "I just love that we're redefining what a party even means," she said. "It's deep conversations by 10 a.m., and I personally love it because it's so aligned with where I am now in my life and what I'm focused on."
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Could honeybees help us understand FASD? This Saskatoon researcher watches hives for clues
A researcher from Saskatoon wants to learn more about the effects of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) by using honeybees. Sarah Wood, research chair in pollinator health at University of Saskatchewan, has looked at how FASD affects the movements of bees, and now she is looking to see how it may affect bees socially. "There's this genetic connection between the social behaviour of honeybees and humans that we thought we'd like to explore in the context of FASD," said Wood. She says a previous study that looked at honeybees is a potential model for autism in humans. "What they found was that for honeybees that were socially non-responsive in certain situations, they had some of the same genes unregulated as humans with autism," said Wood. Her research around FASD is already being carried out and led by a masters student who is raising honeybees in the lab — from larvae to adults. At the same time, Wood says they include low concentrations of ethanol through the larval diet to observe how it impacts the development of the honeybee until they are fully grown. Honeybees are then introduced to an observation hive. "This is a glass-sided hive where we can observe the behaviour of the honeybees and we can look at how they interact with their nest mates, how they share food, how they communicate and also how the bees interact with their queen," she said. Each honeybee will be identified by a numbered tag attached to their thorax so they will be easy to identify and compare the treatments and controls, said Wood. Link between bees and humans Wood says honeybees are a eusocial species where they have cooperative brood care — they work together to care for larvae and have overlapping generations. "And they have division of labour," said Wood, noting that different ages of bees have different jobs in the hive. "All of those properties, you know, we can sort of see in our own human society. And so perhaps it's not surprising that honeybees might be a good model for human conditions," she said. Stephen Pernal, a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, says honeybees offer a lot of potential when it comes to looking at the progression of a disease and what factors may affect it. "Now with the advent of genetic technologies, we can look at gene expression," said Pernal. "And we do know, some of the genes that honeybees have are common in terms of expression between autism in people and an insect." He says "animal models" are commonly used for research because it would be unethical to treat humans with disease to look for cures or at progressions of the disease. "They could be fish, they could be things like worms, like nematodes and in fact sometimes insects are used in animal models as well," said Pernal. Beyond ethics, Pernal says using an animal model is often cheaper and quicker when it comes to getting answers to the questions that may want to be used in a human model. "Honeybees are super social. They have co-operative group care, they have division of labour, they have tasks which reduce diseases by social skills," said Pernal. He says a honeybee's social behaviour can be characterized by observing their role in a hive. "I believe the idea is if you were to expose honeybees to some sort of threat, in this case alcohol, we could look at their effects on their social skills as adults and use that as a model to compare what might actually happen in people." Pernal says there aren't a lot of other systems that could be used to explore changes in adult behaviours and socialization in other animals. What the research shows so far Wood says when looking at how the ethanol affects a bee's development, they noticed the honeybees that have been exposed to higher concentrations of ethanol have covered less distance compared to those that had less. "They weren't moving normally compared to the controls," she said. Looking forward, Wood says the more immediate outcome of her research would be to spark more positive conversations around FASD and support for the families affected. "The long-term goal for this research would be to develop a drug discovery animal model as sort of a cheap and easy model that we could use to screen potential therapeutics for treatment of FASD," she said.
