From the crumbling tombs of ancient Egyptian kings to Canada’s under-renovation Parliament Hill, heritage sites across the globe are faced with a common challenge: how do we make these historically and culturally important spaces more accessible to all?

To resolve this, institutions are reaching out to Carleton University’s Immersive Media Studio (CIMS), a multidisciplinary lab that collaborates with public, private and not-for-profit partners to find cutting-edge digital solutions.

Led by director Stephen Fai, the studio’s team of researchers use high-tech modeling and image capturing tools to create digital models of heritage sites, allowing anyone to virtually travel through space and time to explore the location.

Internationally renowned for their skills, the studio works with high-profile clients to do everything from creating a 360-degree virtual reality reconstruction of the Senate of Canada building for Canada’s 150th anniversary, to painstakingly documenting the tomb and wall paintings of 14^th century BCE pharaoh Tutankhamun or “King Tut” for the Getty Conservation Institute.

Most recently, CIMS partnered with the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa to make an interactive digital replica of Canada’s performing arts hub, with the first phase of the project tentatively scheduled to launch in the fall.

“We wanted to tell the story of this incredible institution and building, and to digitize its archives which aren’t generally available to the public” says Fai, a researcher and professor at Carleton’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism.

Creating a virtual version of the NAC ensures that the building and its contents will not only be recorded for posterity, but will give the institution an enhanced online presence.

The driving force behind the project was ‘How do we make these spaces fully accessible to everyone, whether they’re a fine arts student at a local university or a theatre-loving Canadian from across the country?’ says Fai.

The “Endless Possibilities” of Digital Models

During the pandemic, when the curtain temporarily came down on in-person performances at the NAC, CIMS team lead Julia Laninga and her colleagues spent months digitally documenting every corner of the empty building.

These scans were uploaded into the Unreal Engine – a powerful software used to make video games – to create a navigable 3D model of the arts centre.

“We focused on how to bring people into the NAC to experience the space in a way that’s interactive and educational,” explains Laninga, who is also an alumna of Carleton’s interactive multimedia and design program.

Because the team had permission to use elements from and crosscheck their model against one previously developed by Diamond Schmitt Architects for a renovation project, the final product is a hyper-accurate copy of the entire NAC housed within a game engine.

“That level of detail and precision really gives the NAC endless possibilities for future applications,” says Laninga.

These applications could include using the model as a wayfinding map for guests or as a tool for stage designers hoping to see what their sets will look like from any seat in the house.

“By digitally scanning and archiving buildings, we open up a world of possibilities and solutions to future problems we can’t even imagine,” says Fai.

“A similar thing happened with our Parliament Hill project,” he explains. “We started documenting buildings in the West and Centre Blocks to create a heritage record of what they looked like – but those models are now being used by the construction firms contracted to repair those buildings as part of the multi-billion-dollar Parliament Hill rehabilitation project.”

Exploring the Secrets of Canada’s National Arts Centre

Inconspicuously tucked away in the parking garage, the NAC quietly houses one of the largest performing arts archive in the country, containing half a century’s worth of costumes, props and more.

Thanks to the CIMS’s diligent digitizing work, much of the archive and its contents will now be accessible to the public for the first time ever.

In fact, the 3D version of the NAC lets visitors peak into several areas they’d never be allowed to see in person – from the backstage to a special presidential safe room.

“There’s a secret space at the NAC called the Nixon Room, built for US President Richard Nixon at his request,” explains Fai.

“He required that there be a safe room where his security could take him if an incident or assassination attempt occurred while he visited.”

The CIMS team also produced a series of bilingual interactive tours to accompany their 3D model. Virtual visitors can “walk through” atriums and concert halls guided by commentary from fictionalized characters from different eras across the arts centre’s fifty-year history.

“The same space can hold very different meanings to different people, which helps us tell a fuller story,” says Laninga.

–
More Social Innovation

Whistleblowers shed light on problems that would otherwise remain in the shadows, alerting us to dangers to the public and abuses of public funds.

While vital to a thriving democracy, whistleblowing can come at great personal cost, including losing one’s job, getting hit with retaliatory lawsuits and even threats of violence.

Though Canada tends to see itself as a beacon of democracy and justice, legislative protections for whistleblowers are surprisingly slim and lag many other countries in the world.

Carleton University researchers Paloma Raggo and Ian Bron want to change that, and are using research and advocacy to push Canada to catch up to its peers.

For Raggo it all started when Carleton graduate student Pamela Forward approached her with a desire to dig into how Health Canada mismanaged a dangerous medication, leading to years passing and numerous casualties before any action was taken.  “It was a story centered around a whistleblower,” says Raggo.

“Whistleblowing is a mechanism for accountability,” says Raggo, the Director of the Charity Insights Canada Project at Carleton.

“It tells you who is responsible for issues, and who should fix them.”

For Forward, whistleblowing wasn’t just a topic of study, it was a passion. In 2019, she spearheaded the creation of the Whistleblowing Canada Research Society (WCRS), which seeks to research, inform, educate and raise awareness about the challenges whistleblowers face in Canada. Raggo was a founding member of WCRS, and currently sits on its board of directors.

“Already, WCRS has had a huge policy impact,” says Raggo. “There has been a private member’s bill and reforms to legislation are in the offing in which WCRS played a major role.”

Changes in Organizational Culture Can Usher in Greater Transparency

While some reforms appear imminent, there are relatively few supports for whistleblowers in Canada. Lawyers often decline whistleblowing cases, and there are no funds available to support their legal cases.

But better awareness of whistleblowing’s benefits could help, and educating people is an ongoing challenge, according to Ian Bron, a PhD graduate from Carleton’s School of Public Policy & Administration and chair of WCRS’s Advisory Board.

“It is an offence to make a reprisal against someone who brings forward concerns, but in practice, this is next to impossible to enforce,” says Bron, whose dissertation identified glaring flaws in Canada’s protections.

“Whistleblowers are often ostracized, denied training or given poor performance reports. They are sometimes even fired or blacklisted.”

Bron lived through reprisals at Transport Canada, where he was ostracized and investigated after blowing the whistle on favouritism in his unit and failures to enforce transportation security regulations in the maritime sector. But Canadians benefit from knowing when regulatory bodies are being unduly influenced, and he believes that educating people about the benefits of whistleblowing could help ameliorate the challenges whistleblowers face. It shouldn’t be viewed as threatening, he argues.

“Governments are typically bound by their own institutional norms, and these norms can create barriers to whistleblowing,” he says. “Incentives play a major role. Many executives perceive that if something bad happens on their watch, it will impede their career. As a result, they may give the impression they don’t want anybody stepping out of line, and don’t want to know about problems.”

Civil society groups like WCRS have an important role to play in educating organizations and legislators. Academics can conduct research into whistleblowing, which helps determine what a law should contain.

Bron’s research studied whistleblowing in Canada, the UK and Australia, and he believes that the Australian approach could yield lessons for Canada. In 2005, Australia’s state and commonwealth governments participated in a major study about how disclosures of wrongdoing were handled. And academia and civil society groups played a significant role in shaping its whistleblower protection laws.

“If you can get that level of cooperation,” says Bron, who is also a senior fellow at the Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Free Expression Whistleblowing Initiative.

“You can work with organizations to change attitudes.”

Disparities and Obstacles Faced by Whistleblowers in Canada

While whistleblower research at Carleton is shedding light on challenges, there is more to be done. WCRS relies heavily on Forward’s tireless efforts and has much more limited resources than civil society organizations in other countries.

In the United States, the Government Accountability Project is a large, well-funded NGO that supports whistleblowers and is led by lawyers. In the UK, the government provides grants to several whistleblower-focused organizations. And in Europe, the 2021 Whistleblowing Directive introduced numerous new best practices.

While there have been some improvements since whistleblowing legislation was introduced two decades ago, Canada has not kept pace overall. This is both alarming and an ongoing threat to democracy.

“It is a difficult area to obtain support and funding,” says Raggo.

“You have to navigate through the credible and the incredible cases, just to find the facts. You’re working with people who have been profoundly hurt by a system. It takes a lot of resources and a lot of time.”