Futureproofing Canada

The future of the Safe Third Country Agreement, a Policy Options podcast. As the Trump administration persists with its harsh immigration policy south of the border, calls are mounting for Canada to suspend or rescind the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA). Implemented in 2004, the STCA requires those seeking asylum in Canada or the US to make a refugee claim in whichever country they arrived in first. Sharry Aiken joined the podcast to discuss the STCA and its history. She argues that the US is currently unsafe for refugees, and looks at the political implications of suspending the agreement. Sharry Aiken is an associate professor at Queen’s Law, where she teaches international refugee law, immigration law, international law and international human rights law. She is a past president of the Canadian Council for Refugees. Read the Policy Options article Aiken co-wrote in April 2017: Fortress USA and policy implications for Canada. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP.

Why does encryption policy matter?, a Policy Options podcast. How does encryption impact our daily lives? What’s at stake in the policy debate over the challenges raised by encryption? Lex Gill joined the podcast to discuss how effective encryption technology protects human rights, public safety, national security and consumer interests. Lex Gill is a research fellow at the Citizen Lab. She has written and spoken internationally on issues like privacy, freedom of expression, equality rights, cybersecurity policy, national security law, censorship regulation and surveillance technology. Read the Citizen Lab’s report, by Lex Gill, Tamir Israel and Christopher Parsons, Shining a Light on the Encryption Debate: A Canadian Field Guide. Read the Policy Options feature series Recalibrating Canada’s Consumer Rights Regime. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP.

What are the policy moves and events that have defined Justin Trudeau’s Liberals first mandate? What should we expect from the upcoming federal election? These were the topics discussed at a recent Policy Options working lunch in St. John’s, Newfoundland. A panel consisting of IRPP President Graham Fox, Amanda Bittner (Memorial University) and Alex Marland (Memorial University) took stock of the last three years in federal politics and looked ahead to Election 2019.

What can Canada expect from the G7 summit?, a Policy Options podcast. Despite anticipated trade tensions at the G7 summit in Charlevoix on June 8-9, the Trudeau government will promote its agenda focusing on inclusive economic growth, peace and security, climate change and oceans, gender equality and jobs of the future. John Kirton joined the podcast to discuss Canada’s priorities at the meeting, the six-plus-one dynamic with US President Donald Trump, and what a successful G7 summit would look like for Canada. John Kirton is director of the G7 Research Group, co-director of the G20 Research Group and a research associate at the Munk School of Global Affairs. New episodes every second Wednesday. Download for free. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP.

Canada’s surveillance of Indigenous movements, a Policy Options podcast. From the fight against the Northern Gateway pipeline to the anti-fracking protests involving Elsipogtog First Nation and the Idle No More movement, Canadian surveillance organizations have kept close watch of Indigenous resistance movements over the past decade. Andrew Crosby and Jeffrey Monaghan, authors of Policing Indigenous Movements: Dissent and the Security State, joined the podcast to discuss why the government monitors Indigenous social and environmental movements. They say this surveillance characterizes land and water protectors and other activists as security threats, delegitimizing the actions of Indigenous rights holders. Andrew Crosby is a coordinator with the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) at Carleton University. Jeffrey Monaghan is an assistant professor at Carleton’s Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice. New episodes every second Wednesday. Download for Free. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP.

Black Canadians and the justice system, a Policy Options podcast. Black people are dramatically over-represented in Canada’s prison system, making up 8.6 of the federal prison population, despite the fact they make up only 3 percent of the population. What is more, between 2003 and 2013, the incarceration rate among Black people increased by nearly 90 percent. Anthony Morgan says the targeted policing of Black people in Canada isn’t only happening through the justice system. It’s also taking place in our education, child welfare and health care systems. Morgan is a lawyer at Falconers LLP. His practice focuses on state accountability litigation. He is also an advocate and commentator on Canadian multiculturalism, racism and critical race theory. Read Anthony Morgan’s Policy Options articles Doing justice by Black Canadians (part of our ongoing feature series Widening the Lens on Criminal Justice Reform) and Where are Black Canadians in the cannabis debate? Download for free. New episodes every second Tuesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP.

Immigration detention and newcomer communities, a Policy Options podcast. According to the Canada Border Services Agency, about 7,000 men, women and children are detained through Canada’s immigration detention system every year. Stephanie J. Silverman joined the podcast to discuss how the system traumatizes newcomer and mostly racialized communities, criminalizes migration and requires extensive reform. Silverman is the outgoing Bora Laskin National Fellow in Human Rights Research, and teaches ethics, society, and law at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College. She is also a partner at Thinking Forward, a human rights consultancy, and the Canada country adviser for the International Detention Coalition. For more about reforming Canada's justice system, read the Policy Options feature series Widening the Lens on Criminal Justice Reform. Download for free. New episodes every second Tuesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP.

Mitigating harm for sexual assault complainants, a Policy Options podcast. Over 90 percent of sexual assaults in Canada go unreported. According to law professor Elaine Craig, when sexual assault survivors do end up in court, the trials cause them further harm. Craig joined the podcast to discuss how sexual assault trials could be reformed to make the process less traumatic for those testifying. Elaine Craig is the author of Putting Trials on Trial: Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession (2018). She is an associate professor in the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. Download for free. New episodes every second Tuesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP.

Do female ministers affect women's civic engagement?, a Policy Options podcast. In governments around the world, women’s presence in cabinet is having a substantial impact on political office and policy-making, but what does it mean for women’s political involvement? Sarah Liu joined the podcast to discuss her study Do Government Positions Held by Women Matter? A Cross-National Examination of Female Ministers’ Impacts on Women’s Political Participation. Liu is an assistant professor in the School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology at Newcastle University, England. Download for free. New episodes every second Tuesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP.

Will AI just wind up automating inequality?, a Policy Options podcast. Proponents of automation say the developments will create a more efficient and advanced society, but there are concerns that the changes will not affect all citizens equally. According to Virginia Eubanks, the automation of social and welfare services in the United States is creating a "digital poorhouse,” deepening class divides and diverting poor and working-class people from accessing public resources. Eubanks joined the podcast to discuss her new book Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. She is an associate professor of political science at the University at Albany, SUNY. Download for free. New episodes every second Tuesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP. Read the Policy Options feature series on the Ethical and Social Dimensions of AI.