Policy Options

The existence in our Constitution of a clause allowing our elected representatives to derogate — to deviate — from the individual rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter (and Quebec’s)...

La victoire sans équivoque du Parti conservateur uni (PCU) de Jason Kenney le 16 avril dernier ― avec 54,8 % des voix exprimées contre 32,7 % pour le Nouveau Parti démocratique...

In-vitro fertilization (IVF) has come a long way since the birth of the first test-tube baby in England in 1978. IVF is a procedure in which eggs are removed...

Le retour à l’ordre du jour des questions liées à la procréation médicalement assistée (PMA), tant au Québec qu’au niveau fédéral, rappelle à quel point persiste une inadéquation entre...

What if there were a way government could boost investments in things like affordable housing and renewable energy without spending a cent? Ottawa could easily redirect billions of dollars...

De plus en plus d’enfants naissent du recours à la procréation assistée. L’encadrement de cette pratique est un domaine de compétence partagé entre les gouvernements fédéral et provinciaux. Par...

Support for electoral reform is a potent, if latent, political force in Canada, and Quebec now seems poised to switch its electoral system from single-member plurality (SMP) to mixed-member...

(This article has been translated into French.) In November 2018, a Chinese researcher made headlines with the news that he had created genetically modified babies using genome editing. The...

The world is facing a forced-displacement crisis. There are nearly 69 million people around the world, over half of them children, who have fled their homes because of armed...

Bureaucrats, ministers of Indian affairs and even premiers and prime ministers have promised year after year to address the multiple, overlapping crises in the Cree Nation of Kashechewan, crises...

Longtemps inexpliqué, le miracle de la vie s’éclaircit au fur et à mesure que nos connaissances en matière de procréation et de génétique évoluent. De l’embryon présentant les meilleures...

Worldwide, commercial surrogacy services are in high demand, and Canada has become an appealing provider for international couples in search of these services. Although there are some gaps in...

There is a conventional notion that justice should be blind. But Canada’s Constitution says the opposite: it should not be blind, and it should not be colour blind. Canadians...

Beginning in 2011, a new generation of prenatal genetic tests became available. These tests are highly accurate in determining whether a fetus has Down syndrome or a few other...

In a 2015 article I asked: “does sperm have a flag?” The answer is, as it turns out, yes. And in the context of Canadian citizenship, it seems likely...

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) appointed a task force in 2018, led by Regina Police Chief Evan Bray, to consider Canada’s gun laws. The task force...

Today 65.8 million people are displaced around the world. Canada has long taken in refugees, including a large group fleeing the Syrian civil war who were invited to Canada...

(This article has been translated into French.) A few years ago, a pregnant friend who went through successful in-vitro fertilization (IVF) called me late at night, sobbing. She felt...

The 2015 federal election was Canada’s first after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action. Four years later, both the public discourse and the policy landscape have...

Assisted reproduction policy in Canada hasn’t quite worked out as planned. After a 1993 royal commission recommended sweeping national legislation, Parliament passed the Assisted Human Reproduction Act in 2004....

New technologies follow a fairly predictable cycle: First comes the hype, then disappointment, followed finally by measured and thoughtful acceptance. Artificial intelligence (AI) is still largely in the hype...

After more than two months — and a remarkable tally of political casualties — the SNC-Lavalin affair at last appears to be entering its final stages. Aside from its...

Bien qu’il n’existe pas de statistiques à ce sujet, la gestation pour autrui (GPA) représenterait moins de 1 % des naissances au Canada. Cette pratique a pourtant fait couler beaucoup...

The much-maligned, often-studied Assisted Human Reproduction Act is a sweeping piece of legislation that governs the regulation of reproductive technologies and embryo research in Canada. Although it was passed...

Designing a policy framework to regulate the ethically charged, scientifically complex field of assisted reproduction has been challenging for the federal and provincial governments. The 2004 Assisted Human Reproduction...

The average Canadian spends about $200 per month on groceries. This varies depending on where you live. In Toronto, for example, the price is closer to $254 a month,...

In recent months, Barrick Gold Corp. has been moving quickly to redefine itself and the highly competitive gold industry. But as it acts on its global ambitions, Barrick is...

En tant que membre du Sénat, je sais que les Canadiens ont été des milliers à se prononcer pour ou contre le projet de loi C-69, lequel prévoit la modernisation...

The Quebec government’s renewed attempt to legislate state secularism in Bill 21, An Act respecting the laicity of the State, is hostile to religious minorities. It rests on a...

Pourquoi poser cette question ? Tout simplement parce que si nous nous fions au seuil officiel de la pauvreté que le gouvernement canadien a reconnu voilà peu, il ne saurait...

Our world suffers not so much from a refugee crisis as a political crisis — a deficit of leadership and vision and, most fundamentally, a shortfall of humanity and...

When the Liberals unveiled their newest federal budget in March, there was a strong focus on skill development and the future of work. Notable, too, were investments in science...

What happens when government tries to govern big tech? For Canada, the answer is that big tech packs up and leaves. Google recently announced it was going to ban...

In a Commons speech last week to Daughters of the Vote, an event to promote women in politics, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed that trust among members of his...

«Les Canadiens font partie de ceux qui doivent payer les prix les plus élevés pour des médicaments d’ordonnance au monde », admet le gouvernement fédéral dans son communiqué de presse...

Mélanie Joly, Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie, marked the 50th anniversary of the first Official Languages Act in March by launching a series of consultations that...

The impending shutdown of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) in early May 2019 is not the result of a new phenomenon. In the past ten years, a number...

“I wasn’t born to be a drug addict,” said a brave member of the audience at our recent Open Caucus meeting in the Senate on the Opioid Crisis in...

With the expulsion of Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus, I began to think back on the other so-called “maverick” MPs I’ve come across over the...

Le budget 2018-2019 du Québec, présenté par le gouvernement libéral, ouvrait les vannes des dépenses publiques, après des années de croissance très faible en début de mandat. Ces hausses...

Canada is often touted as an early leader in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race, and in many ways this assessment is correct. We have world-leading AI researchers and...

2019 has seen huge developments in Canadian politics, and we still have months to go until the federal election. We know some of the political questions that will define...

(This article has been translated into French.) The political differences across the country – on issues ranging from energy and the environment to immigration and the best way to create jobs –...

It was a full house for our panel on Indigenous-Crown relations, the third event in Policy Options’ Pre-election Breakfast Series, in partnership with the Max Bell School of Public...

The federal government had three pipeline options to ship Alberta’s oil to the West Coast. It cancelled one (Northern Gateway) and is in the process of shutting down another...

The world’s forests are being cut down in ways and at rates that make natural recovery difficult, if not impossible — to the detriment of the life, livelihoods and...

The Chinese written character for “crisis” perfectly frames the art of politics. It consists of two characters: danger and opportunity. In politics, danger to your opponent is opportunity for you....

Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time has been called the world’s least read, most celebrated book. In a more humble category, Bill C-69 could be Canada’s least read,...