In January of 2025, the University of New Brunswick’s Radio and Space Physics Lab (RSPL) published ground breaking research that determined that low-cost global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers collected data comparable in quality to high-cost receivers. Dr. Anton Kashcheyev explained that GNSS receivers send and receive frequencies to satellites through the earth’s atmosphere that are most often used for global positioning systems (GPS). Scientists also use GNSS receivers to monitor changes in the ionosphere, which is a part of the atmosphere from 80 kilometers to 1000 kilometers above the earth’s surface. Changes in the ionosphere affect the accuracy of GPSs, so understanding and predicting the ionosphere makes GPSs and other devices that rely on GNSS more effective. Scientific grade GNSS receivers are expensive and inaccessible to scientists without large research budgets. Anton and scientists from the RSPL created a network of consumer grade, low-cost receivers by installing them on the roofs of public schools around New Brunswick. The RSPL then observed changes in the Ionosphere during the 2024 eclipse and compared that data to data collected by scientific grade equipment, finding that both had similar levels of accuracy. Anton hopes that this research will allow increased access to atmospheric science for scientists in countries and institutions with small research budgets.

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On Monday, March 31, 2025, roughly thirty people held up signs and yelled chants outside of the Capital Exhibition Centre in Fredericton. The protest was in response to Pierre Poilievre’s Canada First Rally, the first of its kind on the East Coast. After about forty-five minutes of protesting at the venue’s side entrance, the Fredericton Police Force closed the doors. Protesters and rally attendees moved to the front entrance, where a handful of people were admitted, until police closed the front doors as well. Confusion ensued over the reason for closing the doors, with rally attendees accusing protesters of blocking cars, something not witnessed by this reporter.

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On Thursday, March 27, 2025, La Fédération des jeunes francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick (FJFNB), an organization that advocates for youth francophone rights and culture in New Brunswick, delivered an open letter to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick. The letter demanded that New Brunswick MLAs begin discussing the possibility of lowering the voting age in the province from 18 to 16. In a show of solidarity, several students from Fredericton’s Ecole Sainte Anne helped deliver the letter. Ecole Sainte Anne Student Council President, Romane Doucet said that students at her school held a meeting to discuss a lowered voting age, during which it was clear that the majority of students supported the potential change. The supporters of the open letter reason that sixteen and seventeen year old New Brunswickers already participate in most areas of public life (driving, paying taxes, joining the military, etc.) but cannot participate directly in politics. After starting the conversation with this open letter, FJFNB President Emma Raphaelle said the next step is to go into Fredericton’s Anglophone schools to continue giving high schoolers a voice in provincial politics.

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Earlier this month, Fredericton based historian and former president of the York-Sunbury Historical Society, Harold “Hal” Skaarup began distributing his newest book, Canadian Expeditionary Force and Military Cap Badges: York Sunbury Historical Society Fredericton Region Museum Collection.

This new release is over one-thousand pages and catalogues every cap (hat) badge worn by the Canadian military during the First World War, the majority of which were photographed from the Fredericton Region Museum’s collection.

Skaarup hopes that this book will serve as a resource for museums, archives, and enthusiasts to better understand and connect with the past. He also invited interested community members to visit the Fredericton Region Museum to take a look at its reference copy and potentially see the real badges in the Museum’s collection.

Hal Skaarup talked to CHSR News about the significance of cap badges and why he thought it important to create this book.

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In March 2025, Employment and Social Development Canada announced that the Global Skills Opportunity (GSO) program would not be renewed after its five year pilot.

Starting in 2019, GSO was established to provide federal grants to Canadian university students participating in international study programs. The program was allotted a five year pilot, at which point the government would review and determine if it would continue. The end of the pilot came in December 2024, and in March 2025 the program was not renewed.

The University of New Brunswick utilized GSO funding to support short term study abroad programs—generally lasting several weeks in the summer (as opposed to long term study abroad semesters). St. Thomas University also used GSO funding to support students.

Esme Newling, STU’s Director of Experiential Learning and Career Development, noted that the end of GSO funding will significantly limit the number of students that participate in study abroad programs at STU—particularly low income students.

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