Rebuild Canada

The Public Policy Forum is tapping into the best established and ascending policy brains in an effort to help policymakers weigh priorities and trade-offs and forge a rebuild plan. Regardless of what processes governments ultimately employ, we believe this PPF process will prove of assistance to decision-makers understandably occupied with myriad, complex issues in engineering the transition out of lock-down and the country’s economic recovery.

PPF’s Rebuild Canada initiative lays down a foundation of insights, ideas, options, and strategies for turning the COVID-19 pandemic into a catalyst for something greater than a return to the pre-cataclysm status quo.

Pharmacare: essential to our health and economy

In Canada, we currently rely on employer-based benefits to provide medication coverage. Wellesley Institute research has found that as a result of this, over 1 in 5 Ontario workers did not have pharma benefits pre-COVID-19, and that the benefit gap hits some of Ontarians harder than others. Part-time, younger, racialized and immigrant workers were all less likely to have benefits.

Re-Imagining Policing

Though systemic racism in Canada manifests itself in several institutions, this report focuses particularly on systemic racism within the institution of policing. The racialized nature of policing in Canada, whether it be by city police forces, provincial police forces or the RCMP, has disproportionately targeted Black Canadians and Indigenous peoples.

The Trudeau Liberals should stop ducking a handgun ban

The Canadian government’s plan to allow municipalities to ban handguns is not “an overreach,” as Alberta politicians have labelled it.

But it would be an ineffective gesture at a time when cities desperately need help to curb rising deadly gun violence.

Breast cancer awareness is not enough: Public health strategies need to be based on prevention

I’m tired of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Forgive me, but as a researcher studying how we understand information on links between environmental and occupational exposures and breast cancer, I’ve grown weary of yet another October decorated in pink, promoting the same message of awareness. The message itself has become tired, and awareness-raising alone is an ineffective solution to the breast cancer epidemic.

RCMP Union Tells Officers To Proudly Wear Controversial 'Thin Blue Line' Symbol

A dispute between RCMP management and its members this weekend over whether officers should be allowed to wear the controversial “thin blue line” symbol points to growing tension within Canada’s largest police force, experts say. 

Late last week, the RCMP directed its members to stop displaying the “subdued” black and white Canadian flag with a blue line across the middle of their uniforms and equipment, reported the Toronto Star. 

Canadian Support For Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine Drops Dramatically: Poll

Canadians appear to be turning against mandatory COVID-19 inoculations whenever a vaccine becomes available, with a new poll suggesting the number of people opposed to the idea is growing.

The poll by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies is the latest to take the public’s temperature during the COVID-19 pandemic, and comes as governments and scientists around the world are scrambling to find a vaccine.

Weed Executives Are (Still) Overwhelmingly White

Two years after Canada legalized recreational cannabis, Black and Indigenous people, and women, are significantly underrepresented in leadership positions at licensed cannabis producers, new research shows. And experts say there needs to be more effort to bring racialized people, who have been disportionately criminalized by cannabis prohibition, into the legal fold.

The problem with Dr. Arruda, Quebec’s COVID czar

Why is COVID-19 hitting Quebec harder than the rest of Canada? Dr. Horacio Arruda, the province’s public health director, has suggested it could be because Quebec’s strain of the novel coronavirus is especially virulent. A far-fetched hypothesis, it was quickly disproved by scientists. But Dr. Arruda is no stranger to this kind of nonsense.

BC Liberal Candidate: Stop Criticizing Sexist Video Objectifying NDP Candidate, It Was Just a ‘Joke’

One of Andrew Wilkinson’s BC Liberal candidates says his colleague’s sexist remarks objectifying an NDP candidate are not worthy of public criticism because his colleague was just “joking” around.