Category: News

Throughout the country, politicians and policymakers routinely talk about the need to address Canada’s historic and ongoing colonial practices. Talk is plentiful. Action, less so.

Among the many manifestations of Canada’s legacy and present-day colonialism is a healthcare and healing crisis in which Indigenous Peoples are overrepresented among those struggling. The challenge calls for decolonization, including robust, structural changes informed by the answers to the question: How we can re-imagine Indigenous healthcare and healing?

On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with elder Alma Brooks of the Native Women’s Association of Canada.

Getting the Infrastructure Spend Right explores the opportunities and challenges presented by a new Biden administration in Washington as Canada continues its transformational investments in infrastructure to create jobs, tackle climate change and build inclusive communities.

Speakers include the Hon. Catherine McKenna, Canada’s Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Jason Bordoff, Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs, Advisor to the Obama Administration on energy and climate and Founding Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy, Carole Saab, Chief Executive Officer of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Jacob Glick, Vice President of Public Policy at Telus, Craig Stewart, Vice President of Federal Affairs, Ottawa at the Insurance Bureau of Canada and Helaina Gaspard, Director of Governance & Institutions, Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa.

Meltdowns reveal so much about our dependencies, our vulnerabilities, and our character.

On this episode of @Risk, Jodi Butts speaks with Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel, whose two most recent books, The Glass Hotel, and Station Eleven, follow characters impacted by disaster. Emily and Jodi explore the real and fictional risks we choose and the ones that choose us

To read the full transcript of this episode, click here

Around the world, the calls have begun to “build back better.” The slogan, or some variant of it, is ubiquitous. Even as we continue to manage life during the pandemic, we start to look beyond it, towards something better, we hope.

In Canada, the idea of a universal basic income has been circulating for decades. However, as the discussions and debates around our post-pandemic world pick up, it’s an idea that is enjoying a moment. And so on this episode, we ask: Should Canada adopt a universal basic income?

On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with Armine Yalnizyan, Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Work at the Atkinson Foundation.

On this episode of Crisis to Resilience, Canada 2020 Executive Director Alex Paterson is joined by Kim Rudd, former Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources, and Michel Trepanier, President of the Quebec Building Trades Council, to talk about their new report Real Jobs, Real Recovery and how we navigate a natural resource sector at a crucial crossroads for recovery.

It is often the people who care the most about an institution who also dare to raise the problems within it.

On this episode of @Risk, Jodi Butts speaks candidly with Jeff Jarvis, an American journalist, professor and media pundit’s pundit, and Nana aba Duncan, an award-winning broadcaster, William Southam Journalism Fellow and founder of Media Girlfriends, about some of the overlooked internal threats to journalism and how they can be overcome.

To read the full transcript of this episode, click here

On this episode of Crisis to Resilience, Canada 2020’s Alex Paterson sits down with Robert Asselin, currently the Senior Vice President at the Business Council of Canada, and former Director of Policy to the Hon. Bill Morneau.

The Business Council’s new report – Powering a Strong Recovery – lays out a recovery plan for our economy. But, as Alex and Robert discuss, even though times are unprecedented, many of Canada’s challenges (and opportunities) brought on by COVID aren’t exactly new. 

Crisis to Resilience is a new Canada 2020 virtual series exploring how we can build a more resilient future for all Canadians.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the urgent need for universal robust connectivity from coast to coast to coast. As lockdown measures transform the way we shop, learn, and even receive health care, a lack of reliable internet access is a not just an isolating hindrance to far too many Canadians, but also a significant barrier to unlocking Canada’s true potential in the 21st century economy. Tune in to a conversation exploring how we can use this moment of crisis to make generational improvements to connectivity infrastructure.

Around the world, the race is on to develop a Covid-19 vaccine. So far, nearly 200 candidates are in the works, including dozens at the human-trial stage. The optimistic experts tell us that a vaccine could be ready this year or early next, and set for distribution by mid-to-late 2021. The pessimists suggest it could take longer. But few doubt that we will be able to produce a vaccine.

The question of concern, therefore, is not whether we’ll develop a Covid-19 vaccine or whether it will be safe and effective. The question of concern is ‘Who will get the Covid-19 vaccine–and when?’

On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with Dr. Alan Bernstein, president and CEO of the Canada-based global research organization CIFAR and member of Canada’s Covid-19 vaccine task force.