Futureproofing Canada

Last September, a Quebec Superior Court judge struck down key provisions in the Quebec and federal laws on medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in what’s known as the Truchon and Gladu case. These set out how close or predictable one’s death needs to be to qualify for MAiD. Now, on March 11, both laws will come into force – without those provisions in Quebec. Meanwhile, the federal government is holding consultations to develop a solution that will be consistent across Canada. As a result of the decision, MAiD will be within reach for more people like Montrealers Jean Truchon and Nicole Gladu – people suffering as a result of physical disabilities and chronic conditions. But a group of experts is arguing that the implications extend far beyond cases like these. In particular, it could allow many more people with mental disorders as their sole underlying medical condition to gain eligibility for MAiD. And if that happens, it’s not clear how the government will respond. To discuss the ripple effects of Truchon and Gladu, we’re joined by Jocelyn Downie and Mona Gupta for a bilingual podcast. Jocelyn Downie is the James S. Palmer Chair in Public Policy and Law at Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law, and Mona Gupta is a psychiatrist and researcher at the Centre l’Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University de Montréal. They’re two of the authors on a forthcoming IRPP study on what the government must do to address the issue of MAiD for people living with mental disorders. Jocelyn will be speaking to our host Julia in English, while Mona will focus on the Quebec context with our French host, Ricardo. To skip ahead to the French portion of the podcast, go to the 31-minute mark. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

The legalization of cannabis and the pardon system for simple possession charges should have decreased the criminalization surrounding the drug. Yet advocates say the impact of legalization won’t be equal: Black and Indigenous people, already disproportionately targeted by police, will likely bear the brunt of the new cannabis regulations. Meanwhile, they’re facing some of the biggest barriers to obtain a pardon and enter into the legal cannabis market. This week’s podcast delves into the links between cannabis and the larger criminalization of Black Canadians. We’re joined by Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, and the director of research for the Campaign for Cannabis Amnesty; and El Jones, a Halifax-based poet, educator, journalist and activist. Cannabis Amnesty: www.cannabisamnesty.ca High, Good People: www.highgoodpeople.com Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

We hear every day about the ways technology is changing the world around us. But if these conversations mention government, it’s usually to warn against foreign threats to our elections. Rarely do we discuss the digital transformation going on within the public service. The FWD50 conference is trying to change that. For the past few years, it has gathered experts from around the world to speak to public practitioners about the possibilities and challenges of digital government. We headed to Ottawa to speak to some of those experts. On this week’s episode, FWD50 speakers David Eaves (Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School of Government), Jaimie Boyd (Chief Digital Officer, Government of British Columbia) and Kristo Vaher (Chief Technology Officer, Government of Estonia) give us an insider’s look at how governments around the world are tackling the digital transformation. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday, starting again in January. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

Canada has an aging population. When we talk about this, our discussions usually circle back to health, and in particular, to the question of how we’re going to care for everyone as the tax base shrinks and the number of people with complex or chronic conditions grows. But older Canadians and their caregivers are struggling now: not just because there aren’t enough specialists or care facilities to go around, but because our health and care systems are so fragmented that reaching and navigating those services can become a Herculean task. To learn how this struggle affects older Canadians and their caregivers, we’re joined by Laura Funk. She’s an associate professor of sociology at the University of Manitoba with a new IRPP study: "Relieving the Burden of Navigating Health and Social Services for Older Adults and Caregivers." That study is available at https://irpp.org/research-studies/relieving-the-burden-of-navigating-health-and-social-services-for-older-adults-and-caregivers/. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

The 43rd federal election has come to a close. At his first press conference after election night, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed that he and the Liberals have a lot of reflecting to do. He said it so often, in fact, that Carleton Journalism Professor Josh Greenberg called this the “reflection re-election.” What does reflection entail? For starters, it means Prime Minister Trudeau and his team will be hard at work deciding on who has a voice in the new cabinet and how the parts of Canada without Liberal MPs will be represented. But there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes, from crafting mandate letters to choosing policy priorities. And it’s not just Mr. Trudeau who will want to hit the ground running. In a minority Parliament, even a fairly stable one, each party is going to have to think strategically. When will they play ball and when will they take a stand? Do they stick with their leader or is it time for a change? What is their endgame? This week we bring you the final conversation from Policy Options’ election 2019 breakfast series, as Yolande James (Les ex, Radio-Canada), Brian Topp (KTG Public Affairs), Elizabeth Roscoe (Hill+Knowlton Strategies Canada) and Jennifer Ditchburn (Policy Options) discuss what awaits Canada’s 43rd Parliament. This event series is held in partnership with the Max Bell School of Public Policy, sponsored by the CBC, and broadcast by CPAC. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

On Monday night, people across Canada tuned in to the first federal debate hosted by the new Leaders’ Debates Commission. If you were looking for measured discussions of policy alternatives, you were out of luck. Instead, viewers got a taste of the parties’ brand management, followed by the usual media narratives: who’s up in the polls, who scored a hit on whom, who “won.” While the messaging may be familiar, there’s no doubt the media landscape itself has changed. Parties and voters are turning more and more to social media. Individuals now have a forum to actively engage with what they’re reading and to hear directly from experts or MPs. But they can also be subject to mis- and disinformation in ways we’re still trying to account for. Today on the podcast, we’re sharing the conversation from the second event in Policy Options’ election 2019 breakfast series, in which Shree Paradkar, Taylor Owen, Paul Adams and moderator Jennifer Ditchburn discuss media coverage and the campaign online. This event series is held in partnership with the Max Bell School of Public Policy, sponsored by the CBC, and broadcast by CPAC. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

The 2019 election campaign is under way. The parties have made major policy announcements. But so far, much of the commentary has focused on political bombshells. When we don’t talk policy as much as we should, that’s a shame. First, because the announcements leaders make are good markers of their party’s election strategy. But more than that, because whoever forms government is going to be making good on a number of these election promises. And a healthy policy debate is crucial for citizens looking to make informed political choices. That’s why, over the next several weeks, we’ll be highlighting the policy issues on the campaign trail by covering the three panel discussions in Policy Options’ new Election 2019 Breakfast Series. The events are being held in Ottawa in partnership with the Max Bell School of Public Policy and sponsored by the CBC. This panel explores emerging policy themes. It features Mike De Souza, Tasha Kheiriddin, and Jennifer Robson, and is moderated by Jennifer Ditchburn. For more information, go to: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/po-events/election-2019-breakfast-series/ Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

When the Senate expenses scandal hit in 2012, it left the parties scrambling to reform the deeply unpopular institution. Then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper had taken small steps over the past several years, but was hitting major constitutional roadblocks. Justin Trudeau took a different approach: in 2014, he removed the Liberal senators from caucus and asked them to sit as independents. Then in 2016, his government introduced a nonpartisan appointment process. These attempts to decrease the Senate’s partisanship and increase its legitimacy have had mixed results. On one hand, the Senate is operating less on party lines, with senators from all groups more active in introducing legislative amendments; on the other, the process by which legislation moves through the senate has become much more complex. Walking us through the effect these changes are having on Canada’s upper chamber is an all-star panel of guests: Yonah Martin, the deputy leader of the opposition in the Senate; Ratna Omidvar, one of the first new senators with the Independent Senators Group; Emmett Macfarlane, associate professor of political science at the University of Waterloo and author of the IRPP study, "The Renewed Canadian Senate: Organizational Challenges and Relations with the Government;" and Leslie Seidle, director of the IRPP research program Canada’s Changing Federal Community. For more information on the Senate renewal, check out the IRPP’s studies: Emmett Macfarlane, "The Renewed Canadian Senate: Organizational Challenges and Relations with the Government": https://irpp.org/research-studies/renewed-canadian-senate-organizational-challenges-relations-government/ Paul G. Thomas, "Moving Toward a New and Improved Senate": https://irpp.org/research-studies/moving-toward-new-improved-senate/ And our round-table report, "Renewal of the Canadian Senate: Where to from Here?": https://irpp.org/research-studies/renewal-of-the-canadian-senate-where-to-from-here/ Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

On October 21, Canadian voters will head to the polls to decide who will represent their riding and their country in our 43rd federal election. The parties have just released their campaign slogans, and after the writ drops in September, we can expect election coverage to take over our TV screens and social media feeds. Among that coverage, can we expect to hear about issues that will affect Indigenous people? That’s the question we pose to Karyn Pugliese on this week’s podcast. Pugliese has an award-winning career in political reporting, and was with APTN for seven years as its executive director of news and current affairs before becoming Canada’s most recent Nieman fellow at Harvard. Here, she walks us through how to report on elections with Indigenous people and policy in mind. But the issues go far beyond that. Earlier this summer, the way Canada’s columnists and editorial boards responded to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls served as a reminder that it’s not just our elections coverage that needs more Indigenous perspectives. On the second half of the podcast, Sheila North joins in to discuss how newsrooms can do a better job of covering Indigenous perspectives. North is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker who has served as the grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. She has told the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls through the documentary 1200+ and as a Cree host of APTN’s Taken. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

When it comes to how Canadians feel about federalism, it turns out there aren’t easy answers. Some provinces and territories are feeling shortchanged while their neighbours are satisfied; our identities are growing even more layered; and our preferred federal-provincial balance of powers is different for every issue and every place. So says the Confederation of Tomorrow, a landmark survey of public opinion on the federation. It’s a joint effort by the Environics Institute, the former Mowat Centre, the Canada West Foundation, the Centre D’Analyse Politique sur la Constitution et le Fédéralisme at UQAM, the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government at St. FX University, and the IRPP, with the first two of three reports released earlier this year. Today on the podcast, we’re joined by Andrew Parkin, one of the masterminds behind the project. He’s the executive director of the Environics Institute and former director of the Mowat Centre, with a lengthy career researching and advising on policy before that. We discuss how policymakers can speak to the country’s complexity and tap into our willingness to work together. For more info: https://www.environicsinstitute.org/projects/project-details/confederation-of-tomorrow---2018 Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.