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This chapter examines how young people relate to and engage with their city. Framed by a sociological approach to childhood, we assert that young people are competent social actors, living a complex relationship with their urban environment, while facing paternalism. The study draws on participatory activities including focus group discussions, neighbourhood walks, city mapping and song and video creation with 54 youth aged 9–17 years from six areas of Montréal (Canada). Our findings point to young people’s mixed experiences and views of Montréal. On the one hand, the city is experienced as unwelcoming, excluding, homogenising and stressful. Among recreational facilities, mental health services and venues to hang out, there is little that meets youth’s specific needs and aspirations. They also pointed out the inequalities across neighbourhoods, pressures to fit into uniformising models, the limitations of gender roles and a lack of support from adults. On the other hand, youth are responding to and shaping their environment by seeking belonging in the city. They question the inequalities and homogenising forces, seek meaning in places and community and value relationships and diversity. We contend that moving towards child–youth friendly cities calls for better listening to youth to enhance the type of opportunities that reflect their needs and aspirations, while providing for inclusive cities that feature alternative forms of citizenship, accessibility to local places, diversity and community.

In this chapter, we will be describing the situation of minority groups in the labour market and in organizations in Québec and Canada. We will be focussing mainly on the situation of women and ethnocultural minorities. First, we will present a statistical picture of their situation. Second, we will explore in more depth the situation of two ethnocultural groups – the Maghrebians and the French – in Québec, ¹ to demonstrate the complexity of the situation of minority groups that cannot be portrayed by statistics alone. Then, third, we will examine some tensions specific to Western societies that have an impact on the dynamics of culturally diverse enterprises. This assessment will show that even though much progress has been made, especially for women, there is still much to do to ensure full equality and greater fairness between minority and majority groups in Québec and Canada. Furthermore, by means of a more qualitative analysis of the situation of these two ethnocultural groups, we will see that statistics do not tell the whole story.

Since Richard Florida’s book The Rise of the Creative Class published in 2000, our attention has been drawn towards a peculiar characteristic of the cities where such a creative class thrives, and that is tolerance. We intend to explore in this paper whether one can use Hofstede’s “Uncertainty Avoidance” dimension to ponder if societies that are “Uncertainty avoidant” can provide a nurturing soil for a creative class to emerge within their bosom. To discuss this question, we examine the case of the Province of Québec (Canada) and most specifically, that of the city of Montréal, a city that has been dubbed by many observers as a creative city. In other words, our question is can a creative class thrive in a city that is located in an “Uncertainty avoidant” cultural and political unit?

Blanc de Gris (BDG) is producing oyster mushrooms from organic waste (coffee grounds and spent grains) in Downtown Montreal. This project brought the two co-founders of this circular enterprise into a challenging journey. Based on an ethnographic account of BDG, including observations, interviews, and a four-month internship into the business, this chapter highlights the difficulties of creating an industrial symbiosis. From gaining legitimacy among their peers and bankers to facing operational problems, this chapter outlines the network’s resilience behind this story. This chapter ends by discussing the case in regard to the challenges related to the emergence of circular business models, identified by a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Starting from the middle of the 1990s, different initiatives linked to an “economy of solidarity” trend have emerged in the province of Quebec. Some of them, like the fair trade movement, seek to short-circuit global commodity chains; others, such as urban collective gardening and local exchange trading systems, rely almost entirely on local resources and contribute to local provisioning. Using empirical material from a study conducted in Quebec between 2001 and 2004, this article seeks to contribute to the understanding of marginal socioeconomic systems and practices in the context of globalization, anti-globalization, and alter-globalization movements.

This chapter reviews the media's fascination with one of the most infamous women in Canadian history. Karla Homolka was found guilty of manslaughter in the deaths of two Ontario teenage girls in the early 1990s. Her husband, Paul Bernardo, was convicted on a number of charges associated with these deaths, including sexual assault and first degree murder. The chapter traces the initial print reports of the arrest, trial and sentencing of Karla Homolka; the application of the ‘Ken and Barbie’ moniker as a description of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo; and the characterization of Karla Homolka's sentencing as the proverbial ‘deal with the devil’. The media continued to pursue Karla Homolka long after she had completed her twelve-year prison sentence and was released into the community. The media's evolution in coverage of this case is described, and it is argued that Karla Homolka's treatment by the media was, and continues to be, an example of the kind of biased coverage that illustrates the gendered manner in which violence is conceptualized in our society, and calls into question the structural and systematic condemnation that is directed towards those women who commit violent crimes. This chapter emphasizes that the lens through which the media covers violent crimes for which women are accused and/or convicted is often clouded with vitriol and malevolence.

Purpose – This chapter is an exploration of how the Canadian media characterize the entire population of Canadian school shootings over a 25-year time period.

Methodology/approach – This chapter uses frame analysis to examine how the media characterize and frame Canadian school shootings within The Globe and Mail, a Canadian national newspaper.

Findings – This chapter demonstrates that the Canadian media utilize a small number of frames consistently over the 25-year period of analysis. Instead of changing their frame use within events over time, Canadian school shootings receive their own “frame emphasis,” reflecting the unique characteristics of each particular shooting. Additionally, the media utilize “exemplars,” or references to past North American school shootings, that serve as rhetorical anchors for future discussion of shooting events as they occur.

Research limitations/implications – As only one Canadian newspaper was utilized, this chapter may not be reflective of all Canadian news media.

Social implications – This chapter demonstrates the need to explore entire populations of school shootings in order to understand media frame use within and across events over time. It also demonstrates the need for international comparisons of school shootings, as the media utilize international exemplars to demonstrate links between school shooting events.

Originality/value of chapter – This chapter is unique in that it examines the entire population of Canadian school shootings to date (n=27), and it is the first to undertake a frame analysis of exclusively Canadian shootings.

Alain Bouchard was born in 1949. He bought his first convenience store in 1978, when he was almost 30 years old. By then, he already had nearly 10 years of experience in the sector. He had already been involved in the start-up of more than 200 convenience stores. He understood that if he was to transform his newly acquired store into a chain and build something big, he needed to set up a team of people with complementary skills to help him make acquisitions.

In 2023, there are roughly 15,000 convenience stores operating under the Circle K/Ingo/Couche-Tard banners, employing 130,000 people in more than 30 countries. Annual sales are more than US$60 billion. Alain Bouchard officially retired from his position as President and CEO in 2014 and became Founder and Executive Chairman of the Board. He continues to be a major shareholder. He is still actively involved in strategic orientations and in identifying potential acquisitions. He has become a ‘Chief Culture Officer’ involved in executive leadership mentoring. He has never stopped communicating the importance of innovative, creative and intrapreneurial behaviour at all levels of the enterprise.

This case study presents Alain Bouchard, the man and the entrepreneur. It shows how he learned and mastered the craft of starting, acquiring, managing and developing convenience stores. It looks at how he encouraged the people around him to act as facilitators and intrapreneurs. It describes his values, how he works and learned to live with risk.