The legacy of the HIV/AIDS fight in Canada
President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to the United States to land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s propelled an unprecedented wave of innovation and...
Unfetter tax code to support quality journalism
Wither Canadian media? Well, if there are any copy editors still working, the first thing they would do upon reading that lead is question whether we mean “whither Canadian...
It is time for immigration 3.0
There is a singular narrative thread running through the international media coverage of Canada in the last two years. In one way or another, it is the tale of...
Indigenous representation in the media
How can we ensure that Indigenous issues are being covered regularly in the media and with sensitivity? Duncan McCue is the creator and curator of the website “Reporting in Indigenous...
Glimmers of hope on the darkest days
Day ten. Watching the administration of Donald Trump unfold stirs such alarm and anger that it’s hard to think clearly or go about one’s day. In the two frightening...
Quand le 5e pouvoir surveille les médias et leurs journalistes
Le quatrième pouvoir, celui des médias, est plus que jamais soumis à la vigilance des gens qu’il est supposé servir. Elle est révolue l’époque où les citoyens « ordinaires » étaient...
What will Trump mean for gender equality?
It’s tempting to think that the four years after January 20 will be a wasteland for gender rights and women’s equality policy. We’ll be lucky if we can merely...
Investing in journalism education
As journalism education goes, so goes journalism. That is not to say that journalism schools necessarily produce the best journalists, or that collectively, journalism degree holders necessarily produce the...
Les années sombres
Chronique d’Alain Noël
L’élection de Donald Trump et la transition politique qui a suivi ont créé une onde de choc partout dans le monde. Voilà un président américain que ne sait pas...
Shoring up the civic function of journalism in Canada
In the winter of 1989, about 10 months before the Berlin Wall fell, Poland’s weak Communist government entered into power-sharing talks with Lech Walesa’s Solidarity movement. As one of...
Is it time to pin Trudeau down?
When it comes to intergovernmental relations, prime ministers seldom end up where they said they would. Realism collides with idealism. It happened to Stephen Harper, and to many prime...
Un financement gouvernemental de la presse d’information ?
Partout dans le monde démocratique, les médias d’information crient famine. Au Canada, depuis que la ministre du Patrimoine canadien, Mélanie Joly, a entrepris sa grande consultation sur la culture,...
Indigenous seats in Parliament
Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, guarantees the protection of “aboriginal and treaty rights” for the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. The visionaries who framed...
After the local newspaper closes shop
Wally Nugent and Brenda Stonehouse were reviewing the ad they planned to run in the Lindsay Post for Canada Day. They were key organizers of the community’s Canada Day...
Tax carbon, not meat, to tackle agricultural emissions
The idea of applying a tax on meat has recently received a lot of attention, both in Canada and internationally. However, the leading proponents of taxing meat make some...
Le journalisme à l’ère postfactuelle
Je donne des cours de journalisme à l’Université de Montréal depuis plus de quatre ans. Au cours de ces mêmes années, quelques centaines de postes de journalistes ont été...
Canada’s Food Guide update needs to address sustainability
There is no shortage of advice about what we should eat or put in the kids’ lunch boxes. While it is relatively easy to ignore the latest headlines advocating...
National security lessons from Canadian history
In 2017, Canadians are marking the 150th anniversary of Confederation. By reflecting on how Canadians in the 1860s tackled the national security challenges of their time, we can learn...
Canada’s local news “poverty”
The death notice published on the website’s home page was low-key and matter of fact. “We regretfully announce that NewsKamloops will cease publication today, Sept. 30, 2016. We’ve enjoyed...
The Future of Canadian Journalism
Even before Confederation, Canada’s political leaders recognized the important role that journalists played in the democratic life of the nascent nation. The new Parliament buildings were outfitted with a...
Améliorer le système de santé en misant sur la formation
Il existe un réel décalage au Canada entre la recherche de classe mondiale sur les services et les politiques de santé, et sa mise en application au sein de...
Young leaders at Davos
“Every generation thinks it’s special, my grandparents because they remember World War II, my parents because of discos and the moon. We have the Internet. Millions and billions of...
Journalism and truth in the Trump era
As Donald Trump moves into the White House, the American news media is scrambling to get its own house in order. How do they cover a president who is...
The Trump era starts now
The first six months of the Donald Trump administration will be a time of disruption and rapid change. As a democratically elected world leader, he will act in ways...
Kellie Leitch and Indigenous rights
On July 26, 1989, then Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic unilaterally dissolved the assembly of the self-governing republic of Kosovo, which was an ethnic Albanian majority jurisdiction in Serbia. This...
Which way forward for Canada’s international investment treaty policy?
The small Belgian province of Wallonia was the focus of international attention in October 2016 when it briefly blocked the signature of a trade agreement between Canada and the...
Shifting the innovation conversation to prosperity
Research intensity – the percentage of GDP a country spends on R&D – is the traditional indicator that policy-makers use to assess the vitality of a nation’s knowledge-based economy....
Investir dans la recherche en santé publique
Récemment, l’Association canadienne de santé publique nous informait que depuis le début des années 1900, l’espérance de vie moyenne des Canadiens s’est accrue de plus de 30 ans. Voilà un progrès...
Emissions targets in the EU and Canada
Last October, the European Union and Canada signed the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). Shortly thereafter, in early November, both ratified the Paris Agreement on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG)...
Rage or reconciliation?
Only a year and a half ago the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) captured the attention of Canadians with horrific accounts of what Indigenous people...
Public Policy toward 2067
As Canada celebrates its sesquicentennial, it seems an appropriate time to consider what our policy-makers, researchers, and legislators should be focusing on today that will be critical to the...
Reports of political science’s death have been greatly exaggerated
In a recent Policy Options article, Will Jennings and Martin Lodge, two British political scientists, lament the state of the global political science discipline, especially in light of recent...
Why we need political economy
In 2013, the world was rocked by the release of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, a book that made arresting claims about rising levels of global income...
Fighting populism by understanding perceptions
A surge of populism has swept up global politics, but populism isn’t a new phenomenon. Not even close. During antiquity, the Greeks worried about it, and the Romans had...
In 2017, let’s take back science! Column by Timothy Caulfield
Over the past year, “truth” has taken a serious beating — and so have “facts,” “evidence” and “science.” We seem to be swimming in a sea of relativity where...
Obamacare on the block
As a new Republican administration and Congress prepare to take office in the United States, the Republican Party’s opposition to the Democratic mosaic of health care reforms known as...
La disparité des soins néonatals : le cas du Nunavik
La question de la juste utilisation des ressources suscite souvent des débats polarisants, notamment lorsqu’on touche au domaine des soins de santé. La nécessaire répartition des ressources doit respecter...
Electoral reform is a solution to the wrong problem
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the debate on electoral reform is how quickly it’s made its way to the top of the national political agenda. Not so long...
Making electric vehicles happen in Canada
To hear Tesla founder Elon Musk and his electric vehicle disciples tell it, our personal transportation future is dazzling. In their world, internal combustion vehicles are belching dinosaurs heading...