Apr 14 2021 — Wesley Wark — Policy Options — The momentum to learn lessons from Canada’s lacklustre response to the COVID-19 outbreak is gathering some speed at last, 15 months into the crisis. Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has recently pledged that his party, if it wins the next federal election, would order a public inquiry into the Liberal government’s pandemic response. The Liberals have […]
Apr 9 2021 — Rosemary Moodie and Margaret McCain — Policy Options — Long before this pandemic made clear to many Canadians that child care is a key part of our economic infrastructure, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women made it a central recommendation. More than 50 years later – despite decades of debates, task forces, special committees and failed multilateral agreements – we continue to […]
Apr 6 2021 — Kent Roach — Policy Options — The under-resourced Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP did a valiant job in substantiating the discriminatory treatment of a Cree mother grieving the killing of her son. In its final and interim reports, the commission also raised a number of questions about how the investigation into 22-year-old Colten Boushie’s death was handled by […]
Apr 1 2021 — Policy Options — As Canada’s 2030 greenhouse gas emissions targets creep closer, our menu of technological options will grow increasingly fixed. A recent report from the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices states that most of the emissions reductions required to reach our 2030 goals will likely come from existing technologies. A cascade of new studies, commentaries and billionaire-funded […]
Mar 26 2021 — Peter Woolstencroft — Policy Options — The televised interview of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry with Oprah Winfrey in early March has resulted in the usual calls for the abolition of the monarchy. These are channeled through the anti-colonialism prism. The British Empire was racist and the monarchy is an integral part of that past. However, Canada’s constitutional […]
Mar 23 2021 — Leslie Boehm and Gregory P. Marchildon — Policy Options — There has been considerable controversy about the rollout of vaccines. In some nations and the European Union, this has led to the sequestering of vaccines produced within their jurisdictions. Countries like Canada, without domestic vaccine production capacity, inevitably face slower rollouts. In fact, as of March 2021, Canada is one of the poorest performers among […]
Mar 16 2021 — Chidi Oguamanam — Policy Options — On Feb. 21, 2021, Israel introduced “green passes” – evidence of COVID-19 vaccination or presumed immunity after recovery from the disease. This form of certificate is called by several other names, most notably immunity passports. According to the global vaccine alliance GAVI, “an immunity passport is an official document that certifies an individual has been […]
Mar 11 2021 — Joshua Gans — Policy Options — Listen to governments around the world and the COVID-19 strategy is remarkably similar: muddle our way through until we have vaccinated enough of the population and the pandemic can be declared to be over. What “enough” of the population means is still up for debate with an amount of herd immunity (which may be as […]
Mar 10 2021 — Vic Fedeli and Maryscott (Scotty) Greenwood — Policy Options — Buy American. It has a nice ring to it for people in the U.S. But it misses out on the real opportunity for all of us to rebound from the pandemic. How about Buy North American? That doesn’t just sound good; it is also absolutely necessary to protect the millions of jobs on both sides […]
Mar 8 2021 — Amanda Clarke — Policy Options — It’s been a year since the Government of Canada, like every other organization, household and individual, was forced to move its work to the web in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. When this shift first took hold, many predicted that the digital demands of the crisis would provide the push the government needed to finally […]
Mar 5 2021 — Srinivas Murthy — Policy Options — Canadians care about equity in their healthcare system. Repeatedly, in poll after poll, Canadians take pride in the structure of our system, which puts equal access to all to life-saving care, above the ability for individuals to get preferential treatment because of their ability to pay. The courts in this country have ruled this to […]
Mar 4 2021 — Mitchell Davidson — Policy Options — In the 2019 election campaign, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer put forward a climate change plan that was 61 pages long. Despite the large volume, very few can remember what the plan actually contained. Maclean’s columnist Paul Wells aptly described the plan in one word: whatever. The fatal flaw of the 2019 Conservatives on the environment […]
Mar 1 2021 — Kathleen Sherwin and Divya Mathew — Policy Options — Agender-equal world is healthier, wealthier and more prosperous. Yet 25 years since the United Nations’ landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing women’s rights and gender equality – no country has fully met its commitments to gender equality. Coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, which is exacerbating inequalities […]
Feb 26 2021 — Maya Eichler and Marie-Claude Gagnon — Policy Options — Emergency meetings into sexual misconduct in the Canadian military have taken a surprising turn now that yet another allegation involving a high-ranking officer was revealed on Wednesday. The House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence was investigating complaints against former Chief of the Defence Staff General Jonathan Vance when current Chief of the Defence […]
Feb 26 2021 — Dale Marshall — Policy Options — In Canada, so much attention was paid to Joe Biden’s very first acts as U.S. president, especially the cancelling of the Keystone XL pipeline. A big reason was the Canadian media framing this primarily as a Canada story rather than one about U.S. dependence on oil – or worse, an incoming president treating Canada poorly […]