By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, News Writer

In early May, the productivity app Flint was released exclusively on the Apple App Store to iPhone users worldwide. Sold for a one-time fee, the app was developed by North Vancouver local James Smith to work for people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD affects many individuals commonly starting in childhood. People with ADHD may experience challenges with organization, prolonged attention, or have trouble sitting still. Additionally, people with ADHD may often hyperfixate on certain tasks until completion, or until a goal is reached. This disorder affects roughly 1.8 million Canadians.  

Using AI, the app helps users intuitively organize daily tasks and activities of “low, medium, or high focus” into a schedule. The app also includes features such as colour coding tasks into projects, voice capture to note down activities, and an hourly tailored schedule, among other functions.

The Peak reached out to Smith to further understand the process that went into creating the app. Smith shared that developing the app came out of his own experience with productivity apps and hearing from people with ADHD in online circles. “I’d tried a lot of productivity tools over the years and kept running into the same gaps. Nothing quite fit how my brain works.” 

Smith added, “I spent time in the r/productivityapps and r/adhd subreddits reading through wish lists, complaints, feature requests. That shaped a lot of what Flint became. It wasn’t built from assumptions. It was built from what people said they needed and weren’t getting.” He highlighted features such as “single task mode” to minimize distractions, “easy rescheduling” to lighten the load of catch-up, and “calendar integration” for coordination between different platforms, which were added at the request of people on these subreddits. 

Smith underlined that what makes his app unique is that its features combine the “most useful pieces together in one place without overwhelming you.” He highlighted that a major feature of the app is the ability for users to report their own capacity, whether it be complete, depleted, or in the center. He argued this helps the app adjust to the user’s current state.

“The whole thing is built around one idea: your capacity changes day to day, and your planner should respond to that instead of ignoring it.”

— James Smith, developer of Flint

Smith said while he did not develop Flint with university students in mind, he recognized the difficulties of the environment. “University is one of the hardest environments for someone with ADHD. The structure that got you through school is suddenly gone, deadlines pile up, and nobody is chasing you.” Beyond the app’s “note-taking and project features,” Smith noted that Flint’s ability to track mood data over time could be very important for students pursuing tertiary education. “Being able to see patterns in your own energy and focus, when you’re most productive, when you consistently crash, gives you something concrete to work with. For a student managing their own well-being, that’s a genuinely useful self-monitoring tool.”

In terms of the app’s widespread accessibility, Smith said that bringing Flint to Android devices was “on the list.” Additionally, he shared that the cost of the app was something he mulled over. “The alternative most apps go with is a subscription, and subscriptions are actually a real problem for people with ADHD,” sharing that a subscription system can be easily forgotten and neglected. “A single payment of $5.99, roughly the cost of a coffee, felt more honest.”

By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer

In 1876, the Indian Act established the Canadian government’s legal ability to determine who is or is not considered a First Nations person under federal law, with the intent to “control and assimilate Indigenous peoples into Euro-Canadian culture,” as written by The Canadian Encyclopedia. 150 years later, despite some changes to the policy, Canada retains the authority to dictate Indian Status.

In 1985, amendments to the Indian Act under Bill C-31 introduced the second generation cut-off rule. Under this legislation, after two generations of parents where only one individual is registered or entitled to Indian Status and the other is not, a child born is no longer entitled to such status.

The legacy of the Indian Act is also one of gender-based discrimination. Prior to 1985, a First Nations woman with status who married a non-status man would lose status herself. The same was not the case for First Nations men. Additionally, “the children and grandchildren of those unions were unable to get status, meaning neither the women nor their children had the right to live on reserve.” This practice distanced women physically and emotionally from systems of support, which contributed to higher likelihoods of violence against Indigenous women and girls.

Now, new amendments to Bill S-2 aim to abolish remaining discriminatory practices. On May 5, K̓áwáziɫ Marilyn Slett, Chief Councillor of the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) Tribal Council and Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) spoke in front of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs in Ottawa to advocate for the removal of several discriminatory aspects of the legislation, including the second-generation cut off. 

If passed by Parliament, the bill would rid the act of the second-generation cutoff by creating the “single-parent rule, allowing status to pass on indefinitely to future generations.” Additionally, initial amendments seek to ensure that First Nations whose past family lost Indian Status are still equally entitled to status themselves.

“This piece of racist and sexist colonial legislation continues its objective of eliminating the ‘Indian problem’ by assimilating First Nations people through the second-generation cut-off,” said Chief Slett about the Indian Act.

As reported by CBC, Cynthia Lapierre of the Wendat (Wendake) Nation shared that the Indian Act has an overarching “objective of genocide,” achieved through the removal of status for women and children.

“History is repeating itself. There are children in our communities that are ghosts. They have no rights or recognition or belonging.”

— Cynthia Lapierre of the Wendat Nation

The Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a branch of the United Nations Human Rights Council, also recently urged The Parliament of Canada to do away with the cut-off. The organization deemed the practice to be a breach of Article 8 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, “which prohibits forced assimilation and destruction of culture.”

“In 2026, it is still dictating who we can parent with if we wish to pass status onto our children,” said Chief Slett to the Committee. “I am here today to urge the Committee and Prime Minister Carney to support Bill S-2 as amended to advance the rights and safety of First Nations women and our descendants, to prevent the legal extinction of our people, and to end the discrimination once and for all.” 

You can read the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs’ full news release at www.ubcic.bc.ca/. 

By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer

On May 19, the SFU Senate convened for their monthly meeting. The Peak attended for more information on new and existing policies and proposals regarding the university.

Discussions of note during May’s assembly included SFU’s strategy in the wake of the recent Canvas cyberattack, statistics surrounding the candidates for the university’s newly minted School of Medicine, and controversy regarding a BC Cancer Foundation and SFU health sciences endowment.

Chief information officer Brian Stewart and chief information security officer Jastej Singh Aujla addressed senators’ questions around the hack, which impacted close to 9,000 institutions. Senator Colin Percival inquired about the possibility for students with privacy concerns to use pseudonyms on Canvas, with the hope of providing extra security. Officers were receptive of the idea, noting potential interest in the idea moving forward. No specific plans of action were noted during this meeting. 

On the agenda was also discussion regarding SFU’s incoming inaugural School of Medicine class, with a cohort set to begin in August of this year. The university received 1,864 applications, while ultimately offering interviews to 205 candidates, and is set to admit 48 students. Currently, all spots are being filled by accepted or waitlisted students.

Senator Dr. David Price, founding dean of Medicine, spoke about the Indigenous stream, a portal designed for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis applicants of the School of Medicine. Price shared he believed that the number of applications from Indigenous students “indicated endorsement of the work that Simon Fraser University has been doing in the Truth and Reconciliation process.”

“Every Canadian medical school in this country does have an Indigenous admittance pathway”

— Senator David Price

“That in part is how we as a medical education community are responding to the TRC number 23,” he said, in reference to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. The 23rd call urges the Canadian government to “increase the number of Aboriginal professionals working in the health-care field, ensure the retention of Aboriginal health care providers in Aboriginal communities, [and] provide cultural competency training for all health care professionals.”

Senators also discussed the terms of reference for the Leslie Diamond Chair in Cancer Survivorship. The endowment is designed to support a chair member and recently a professor as well, in their mission to “enhance the development, execution and translation of cancer survivorship research at regional, national and international levels.”

As it stands, the endowment terms of reference state that “it is the wish of the Diamond Foundation that holders of the professorship are aware of its values.” These values include “a commitment to the pursuit of justice (tzedakah), repairing the world (tikkun olam), acts of loving kindness (chessed), and ensuring the Jewish Community and Israel, the Jewish Homeland is secure, prosperous, and healthy (Ahavat Yisrael).”

Senator David Bangsberg clarified that “there is no expectation that the recipient of the chair holds these values, but simply be aware of the Diamond’s values.” In response, questions were brought up by various members of Senate about the need of making these values clear, what inclusion of such values indicates regarding SFU’s own moral standing, and more. Ultimately, the Senate sought greater clarification from the donor before continuing with a motion.

The Senate will meet next on July 6, as the June 8 meeting has been cancelled.