To improve literacy, Ontario should invest in students and educators
Friday, May 1st, 2026
Even when screening tools are efficient and well-designed, teachers often lack the time, class-size conditions and specialist support needed to respond meaningfully to the results… Ontario stands at a familiar crossroads: keep reaching for solutions that are quick to purchase and easy to measure, or do the harder work of building lasting public capacity… [through] smaller primary classes, restored specialist support, rich early language environments and teacher education grounded in deep literacy expertise.
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Coercion isn’t care, and new laws that enforce treatment and confinement are dangerous
Monday, April 27th, 2026
Coercion is articulated as care and involuntary treatment is presented not as a restriction of liberty but as a necessary response to incapacity and risk. This appeal to compassion functions as a unifying political language, enabling cross-partisan support despite differing ideological stances. By portraying these policies as pragmatic, humane and long overdue, policymakers limit opposition. They also reconfigure the boundaries of acceptable state intervention…
Tags: Health, ideology, mental Health, rights
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Why is alcohol use declining in Canada?
Wednesday, April 15th, 2026
Based on alcohol sales data… the decline appears to be real… Over time, reductions in consumption should translate into gains for public health and savings for the health-care system and taxpayers, as alcohol-related costs exceed tax revenues. While reductions in alcohol sales adversely affect alcohol-related industries, reallocating dollars spent on alcohol benefits other sectors of the economy.
Tags: Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Ontario is closing its supervised consumption sites, calling them a failure. So what counts as ‘success?’
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026
Supervised consumption sites are not beyond criticism: they can be better designed, better integrated and more responsive to the communities that host them. But improving them requires better policy, not selective evidence and site closures… Adding treatment capacity does not require removing the safety net beneath it.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
‘It’s chronic disease, stupid!’ The central challenge facing health care
Friday, February 20th, 2026
A well-integrated interprofessional health-care system, rooted in primary care and configured to support patients with chronic conditions and their informal caregivers, has the potential to improve health outcomes, curb health-care spending and reduce reliance on hospital care… Government policies that fail to meaningfully support public health and social safety nets ultimately drive higher chronic disease rates and greater downstream health-care costs.
Tags: economy, Health, mental Health, poverty, Seniors, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
What causes depression? What we know, don’t know and suspect
Tuesday, February 17th, 2026
Depression arises from a mix of factors – biological (genes and hormones), psychological (personality and thoughts) and social (stress and life events). Treatment options are based on all of these factors, as well as considering how severe the depression is… While science has made some progress in understanding depression, what underpins each person’s experience is unique.
Tags: mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
For women who live on the margins, health care is often out of reach. Here’s how we can build a bridge to access
Wednesday, February 11th, 2026
A community health worker (CHW) is typically a trusted member of the local community who understands the challenges of those who are sick or socially excluded. With targeted training, CHWs can conduct basic health screenings for conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, breast and cervical cancer, and reproductive and mental health problems. Importantly, CHWs act as bridges to primary care physicians… This approach builds trust, continuity and access…
Tags: mental Health, participation, poverty, women
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Why drug approval in Canada should not rely on foreign regulators
Friday, January 30th, 2026
So far, there is no evidence to back up the claim that using decisions made by foreign drug regulators will lead to faster access to newer and better drugs. Before Canada proceeds down this pathway, Health Canada needs to show that it will improve public health.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Why we need to talk about the root causes of food insecurity
Tuesday, January 20th, 2026
Research shows that when more people have adequate incomes, food insecurity declines, and that policy changes are essential to ensure that wages, social assistance and pension rates provide a livable income and greater income equality… most children’s fiction suggests individual choices or life circumstances are to blame for food insecurity and that charity, kind strangers and luck are the solutions.
Tags: Education, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
What Canada can learn from Mexico’s approach to U.S. trade
Tuesday, January 20th, 2026
Mexico’s strategy offers a template for aligning with the U.S. without sacrificing sovereignty or respect for the rule of law. It is a far cry from a full North American customs union that some hope to achieve as part of the upcoming CUSMA review, which would unduly tie Mexican and Canadian trade policy to the whims of Washington, D.C… The recent China deal is a step in the right direction.
Tags: economy, globalization
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
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