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May 2020

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Published by
  • Economy
  • Environment
May 29, 2020

As global protectionism grows, Canada must look for new ways to operate

Financial intervention in the past three months to buffer the global economic shocks from COVID-19 is making records. As of mid-May, an estimated US$9 trillion  has been pumped into...

Scott Vaughan
  • Economy
  • Policy-making
May 29, 2020

Retool the tax system to help pay for COVID-19’s costs

COVID-19 is causing governments everywhere to spend. Everyone agrees this needs to happen while temporarily avoiding the question of “How do we pay for today?” With provinces and territories...

Patrick Gill
  • Health
  • Policy-making
May 28, 2020

Confronting the crisis in long-term care

COVID-19 has been a death sentence for many Canadians living or working in long-term care. The scale of this loss is overwhelming, with over 80 percent of COVID deaths...

Samir Sinha
  • Law
  • Social Policy
May 28, 2020

Pandemic exposes existing link between isolation and domestic violence

In the wake of a global pandemic, domestic violence against women is getting the public and media attention that it deserves and that women’s rights advocates had always hoped...

Vathsala Illesinghe
  • Media & culture
  • Politics
May 27, 2020

Local news is being decimated during one of its most important moments

The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing much about human nature. One of those revelations is that when it comes to matters of life and death, Canadians turn to trusted traditional...

April Lindgren
  • Policy-making
  • Social Policy
May 26, 2020

A basic income is not as simple as you might think

If only it were that simple. A core element of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). It provides a uniform...

David A. Green, J. Rhys Kesselman, Lindsay Tedds
  • Health
  • Policy-making
May 26, 2020

How organizations “pivot” to face pandemic offers valuable future insights

There is a small piece of silver lining in an otherwise very dark cloud. Substantial parts of the world community – governments, businesses, non-profits and individuals – are “dropping...

Kernaghan Webb
  • Economy
  • Social Policy
May 26, 2020

Il nous faut un nouveau pacte social pour redresser les inégalités

Partout dans le monde, des citoyens réclament des changements, puisque la COVID‑19 a mis au jour les dangers des inégalités, dont les femmes sont les principales victimes. Le temps...

Shelagh Day
  • Health
  • Policy-making
May 26, 2020

Like us, our personal health information is safest at home

If any refrain captures this moment in history, it is this: stay at home. So there is a certain paradox with the order issued by BC’s Minister of Citizens’...

Murray Rankin, Kate Phipps
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 25, 2020

Legal steps must be taken against China for initial inaction

In order to safeguard global public health, the world must take action against the Government of China for its role in this global pandemic crisis. The Chinese Communist Party...

David Matas, Irwin Cotler
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 25, 2020

The case for public long-term care insurance

Underfunding might seem like the most logical reason behind the tragically high rate of COVID-19-related deaths in Canada’s long-term care facilities – and yet Canada does not rank poorly...

Michel Grignon, Samantha Pollex
  • Economy
  • Global Affairs
  • Policy-making
  • Politics
May 22, 2020

Defence procurement won’t be so easy to cut in a time of COVID-19

A few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the first signs of impact on Canada’s defence procurement plans are showing. The government has been following an ambitious multi-decade blueprint, starting...

Jeffrey F. Collins
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 22, 2020

A feminist approach to ending poverty after COVID-19

The Government of Ontario is developing its next five-year Poverty Reduction Strategy. According to 2019 estimates, 1.57 million people in Ontario live in poverty, including 382,000 children. Child poverty...

Heather McGregor, Jasmine Ramze Rezaee
  • Economy
  • Indigenous
May 22, 2020

Pandemic shouldn’t impede meaningful Indigenous engagement on Ring of Fire

Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” is a disputed deposit of minerals within Treaty 9 territory of Northern Ontario. Prior to the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic, on Feb. 11, 2020,...

Brady Reid
  • Global Affairs
May 21, 2020

Soutenir les militantes des droits de la personne durant la pandémie

L’avocate d’origine syrienne Reem Al-Ksiri vit aujourd’hui à Vienne, en Autriche. Comme des millions de ses compatriotes, elle s’est vue forcée de quitter son pays en raison de la...

Rachel Vincent
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 21, 2020

Concern about pandemic differs across gender and race lines

A common thread that connects all Canadians these days is worry. We worry about our senior relatives, children home from school struggling with online lessons, sky-rocketing unemployment, the safety...

Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, Allison Harell, Laura Stephenson
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 20, 2020

Time to heed the evidence on public funding for long-term care

In virtually all western countries, COVID-19 has spread rapidly in long-term care (LTC), and where it has taken hold, mortality has been approximately 25 to 30 percent of all...

Margaret McGregor
  • Economy
  • Social Policy
May 20, 2020

Ensure the success of the PACME training program

(This article has been translated from French.) In Quebec, as in other parts of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the layoff of thousands of workers for...

Yves Blanchet
  • Economy
  • Social Policy
May 20, 2020

Unlocking the expanding wealth of charitable foundations

Most Canadian taxpayers do not realize that charitable foundations have accumulated over $80 billion in assets, using taxpayers’ money via charitable tax credits. Once people are informed, they overwhelmingly...

John Hallward
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 19, 2020

Canada’s COVID-19 blind spots on race, immigration and labour

The low-paid and precarious positions in industries that are considered essential during the COVID-19 pandemic (sanitation, health care, and those in the food supply chain) are filled with women,...

Aimée-Angélique Bouka, Yolande Bouka
  • Social Policy
May 19, 2020

Fournir un accès Internet aux ménages à faible revenu

À une certaine époque, avoir un accès Internet était un luxe, un « plus », mais ce temps est révolu depuis longtemps. En ce temps de COVID‑19, l’Internet nous procure un...

Sharmini Fernando, Julie Callaghan
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 19, 2020

COVID-19 crisis in nursing homes is a gender crisis

(This article has been translated into French.) Out of the many tragedies of COVID-19, we must seize the opportunity to re-envision the nursing home system and make it work...

Carole A. Estabrooks, Janice Keefe
  • Economy
  • Law
May 18, 2020

A simple, low-cost bankruptcy option for Canada’s insolvency system

For most Canadians, 2019 was a good year. Unemployment was low and wages were high. Even so, about 54,000 Canadians filed for consumer bankruptcy. When Canadians declare bankruptcy, they...

Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Saul Schwartz
  • Global Affairs
  • Health
May 18, 2020

Health and disease are issues of national security

When government assesses threats to security and our capacity to address them, we look to intelligence. There are many dimensions of such intelligence, such as cyber, border, transportation, international...

Mel Cappe
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 18, 2020

COVID-19 is depriving people of the opportunity to grieve

It is time we talked about the grief. First, the sheer volume of it. There have been more than 5400 deaths from COVID-19 in Canada right now. But we...

Paul Adams
  • Global Affairs
  • Policy-making
May 15, 2020

Time for Canada to intervene as World Court tackles the Rohingya crisis

The global response to the Rohingya crisis has now moved to the judicial arena. Back in June 2019, many politicians and NGOs were calling for Canada to spearhead the...

Bruno Gélinas-Faucher
  • Indigenous
  • Politics
May 15, 2020

An empowered GG could restore Crown’s role as Treaty partner

The protests and blockades that erupted across Canada in the months before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, as well as the systemic inequities Indigenous People face during this global health...

John Fraser, Nathan Tidridge
  • Media & culture
May 15, 2020

Online giants should pay their fair share for news content

It is one of the pandemic’s greatest ironies. At a time when more people than ever are relying on local newspapers, the economic fallout from COVID-19 is destroying the...

Shannon Sampert, Tayler Young
  • Environment
  • Health
May 14, 2020

Canada needs a “green recovery” to confront COVID-19 and other crises

As we grapple with the many difficulties and tragedies of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s difficult to think of much else. But, collectively, we must realize that once we get...

Stephen Cornish, Karel Mayrand
  • Global Affairs
May 14, 2020

Le Canada au Conseil de sécurité : géopolitique d’un vote

Le Canada a fait du multilatéralisme une des pierres angulaires de sa politique étrangère. Dans cet esprit, il a régulièrement cherché à figurer parmi les 15 membres du Conseil...

Jocelyn Coulon
  • Health
  • Science & Tech
May 14, 2020

Rethink executive pay as workers struggle with COVID-19 fallout

During the dark days of the 2008-09 financial crisis, one of Canada’s top CEOs was a guest on the business television program I hosted at what’s now BNN Bloomberg....

Howard Green
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 14, 2020

Long-term care work is essential but essentially under-recognized

More than half of the COVID-19 deaths in Canada are estimated to be among residents living in Canadian long-term care (LTC) homes, the highest percentage in the world. As...

Tamara Daly, Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, Katie Aubrecht
  • Media & culture
  • Politics
May 13, 2020

Canada’s pandemic plans must guard against the rise of racism

The COVID-19 pandemic has come with virulent anti-Asian racism. Fear has led to the use of the term “Chinese virus,” the revival of the slur “Chink,” the perpetuation of...

Jamie Liew
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 13, 2020

COVID-19 has proven Canada can cure homelessness

Let’s compare what care for homeless people normally looks like with what is happening now, in the COVID-19 crisis. Here is a typical scenario in my work as a...

Naheed Dosani
  • Health
  • Policy-making
May 13, 2020

Financing for home care must rise, and be done differently

(This article has been translated from French.) The COVID-19 pandemic and its fatal consequences for vulnerable seniors are forcing us to re-examine our model of support services for those with...

Réjean Hébert
  • Health
  • Science & Tech
May 12, 2020

Counting the ways COVID takes a toll on women

Back in the 1970s, a feisty New Zealand legislator named Marilyn Waring made headlines around the world. Her election campaigns were magnets for energetic local volunteers in a mostly...

Sylvia Bashevkin
  • Health
  • Policy-making
May 12, 2020

Les soins de longue durée sous la loupe

Au Québec, plusieurs enjeux médicosociaux touchant les aînés reçoivent habituellement une couverture médiatique limitée. Mais depuis plusieurs semaines déjà, la pandémie de COVID-19 met les Centres d’hébergement et de...

Patrik Marier, Daniel Béland
  • Health
  • Social Policy
May 12, 2020

COVID-19 is demonstrating the value of family caregivers

Recently, while listening to CBC’s The Current, I was struck by a heart wrenching question posed by a gentleman to one of the pandemic experts on the show. The...

Janice Keefe
  • Health
  • Science & Tech
May 11, 2020

Containing the long-term impact of COVID-19 on higher education

Like colleagues across the higher education sector, I spent a hectic 72 hours in mid-March, transitioning a well-honed teaching plan based on in-person interactions into the largely uncharted territory...

Michael A. O’Neill
  • Health
  • Politics
May 11, 2020

The pandemic and the politics of long-term care in Canada

Sadly, it has taken hundreds of COVID-19 deaths for Canada’s long-term residential care to earn another day or two in the spotlight. For the moment we are in high...

Steven Lewis
  • Health
  • Social Policy
  • Special Features
May 11, 2020

Facing up to Canada’s Long-Term Care Policy Crisis

Long-term care is something every Canadian eventually needs to reckon with – whether it is as we put plans in place for our elder years or when we look...

  • Health
  • Policy-making
May 11, 2020

Réfléchir à l’après-crise en politique et en santé

Pendant que les dirigeants politiques, les gestionnaires du système de soins de santé et les cliniciens s’affairent à gérer la pandémie de COVID-19 au quotidien, nous devons réfléchir dès...

Catherine Régis, Jean-Louis Denis, Jean-François Gaudreault-DesBiens
  • Global Affairs
  • Health
May 8, 2020

Canada should pursue more ambitious international aid plan

Soon after Minister for International Development Karina Gould announced the first phase of Canada’s global support to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, she also said that she expects further Canadian aid to...

Gavin Charles, Shannon Kindornay
  • Health
  • Science & Tech
May 8, 2020

Appreciating the politics of the pandemic

The pandemic is political. While COVID-19 is essentially a public health crisis with massive economic effects, political decisions facilitated the spread of the virus, and politics guides how governments...

Marie-Eve Desrosiers, Philippe Lagassé
  • Environment
  • Health
May 8, 2020

A deep retrofit of homes and buildings is the megaproject Canada needs

As we do our part to flatten the curve on COVID-19, we’re spending much more time in our homes, juggling work with caring for and home-schooling kids, worrying about...

Tom-Pierre Frappé-Sénéclauze
  • Economy
  • Global Affairs
May 7, 2020

Rethinking the Canada-US relationship after the pandemic

Donald Trump’s erratic management of the COVID-19 crisis has been overwhelmingly rejected by Canadians, who feel good about themselves and their leaders. The crisis has reinforced a belief in...

Richard Nimijean, David Carment
  • Economy
  • Policy-making
May 7, 2020

COVID-19 will force a change to Canada’s fiscal arrangements

(This article has been translated into French.) We are witnessing a massive effort to fight a global pandemic with untold loss of life and livelihoods. Public authorities are taking unprecedented...

Daniel Béland, Bev Dahlby, Steve Orsini
  • Law
  • Politics
May 6, 2020

The Liberal government’s incomplete “assault-style” rifle ban

On May 1, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the prohibition of many models of semi-automatic weapons. The Liberals had promised this during the 2019 election and decided to follow...

Blake Brown
  • Media & culture
  • Politics
May 6, 2020

How political leaders in North America have used COVID-19 to improve their polls

(This article has been translated into French.) On March 22, 2020, former Obama White House chief of staff and former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel argued during an interview on...

Mireille Lalancette, Vincent Raynauld
  • Law
May 5, 2020

Gouverner dans l’ombre de l’État de droit en temps de pandémie

La déclaration d’un état d’urgence ou d’une urgence sanitaire liée à une menace pour la vie ou la sécurité d’une nation est un pouvoir extraordinaire qui bouleverse plusieurs des...

Catherine Régis, Jean-François Gaudreault-DesBiens, Jean-Louis Denis
  • Health
  • Science & Tech
May 5, 2020

As income is lost, chronic illness could rise during pandemic

Family physicians are trained to ask patients how their social circumstances affect their health. For our more socially vulnerable patients, one of the questions we now find ourselves asking...

Vivian Tam, Milena Forte
  • Economy
May 4, 2020

Can we design a more equitable “business as usual” after COVID-19?

Over the past few weeks, emails from leaders of businesses and organizations have flooded our inboxes, with CEOs assuring clients and customers that despite the “unprecedented times,” they are...

Sarah Saska, Anisha Phillips
  • Economy
  • Environment
May 1, 2020

Canada is falling behind on transition to electric vehicles

(This article has been translated into French.) The global economy is likely moving into recession in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, the immediate focus should be on...

Ben Sharpe, Jessie Pelchat
  • Economy
  • Environment
May 1, 2020

Will COVID-19 unite or divide Canada over its energy and climate future?

It’s no secret that debates over Canada’s energy and climate future are divisive and contentious — if not outright polarized. There is no common vision for the country’s energy...

Monica Gattinger, Brendan Frank

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May 2020

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April 29, 2020

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