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The right formula: Why math is the key to a more equitable society
Monday, January 20th, 2020
Everyone should have a right to fulfill their intellectual potential. The research suggests that math is the subject in which the vast majority of people could – if teachers were empowered to use evidence-based methods in their classrooms – enjoy that right today.
Tags: ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Solving homelessness will require infringing on individual rights
Wednesday, January 8th, 2020
We are stuck between two fundamental tenets of a fair and just society: a person’s right to freedom and personal agency, versus the duty authorities have to protect a person from self-harm and any attempts to harm others. If one of those was to trump the other, it would be the government’s responsibility to stop someone from harming oneself or harming others.
Tags: homelessness, ideology, mental Health, rights
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
In search of a less partisan approach: Let’s use Conservative-agreed upon climate targets
Monday, January 6th, 2020
… nearly every province in Canada has cut emissions consistent with the Copenhagen goal. It is only due to increased emissions in Alberta and Saskatchewan that Canada is not on course to meet the cuts promised by the Alberta team in Copenhagen… The start of the new decade would be a good time to accept that we have a target, a national commitment
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
How can prisoners be rehabilitated without proper access to education?
Wednesday, January 1st, 2020
CSC policy makes clear that prison staff are expected to facilitate access to postsecondary schooling. But that policy conflicts with another: the total ban on inmate access to the internet… As the federal Office of the Correctional Investigator put it in a 2016 report: “It’s hard to understand how an environment deprived of computers and Internet, and thereby deprived of information, can be rehabilitative.”
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, Indigenous, jurisdiction, participation, rights
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Just what the doctor ordered: How AI will change medicine in the 2020s
Saturday, December 28th, 2019
Perhaps the principal short-term impact for deep learning and AI tools would be to liberate doctors and patients from keyboards, their common enemy that markedly detracts from real human interaction… with smartwatch algorithms… common, non-serious conditions that can be diagnosed by patients with algorithms will grow, cultivating more autonomy for willing patients and, as a result, less requirement for doctor visits.
Tags: Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Do Canadian Conservatives even know what conservativism means any more?
Thursday, December 26th, 2019
Somewhere along the way, conservatives went off track. Tax cuts, deregulation and free trade became ends unto themselves without any consideration for their consequences for working-class citizens. Inevitably, the latter revolted. The result was Donald Trump’s election to the White House in 2016 and Britain’s vote to leave the European Union… Canadian conservatism needs to be more than a carbon copy of whatever becomes of its U.S. counterpart.
Tags: economy, ideology, privatization, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Are Canadians ready to confront racism?
Tuesday, December 24th, 2019
Relatively few deny that racism is a reality in Canada. Many Canadians are ready to reflect seriously on how factors such as unconscious bias shape the day-to-day experiences of racialized Canadians. Many may also be prepared to confront systemic racism in public institutions, notably (but not solely) the police. But Canadians can do this while also celebrating the communities, families and friendships they’ve built.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Murray Sinclair has tried for years to shock Canada into confronting colonialism. He’s not done yet
Tuesday, December 24th, 2019
Never trust the colonizer’s history… the system of control in Canada comprised more than just laws… The perfect crime is when you convince the victim that he’s at fault… Indigenous people for the longest time believed it was something wrong with us, that we were weak, we were poor and it was our poverty that caused our situation.”
Tags: ideology, Indigenous, participation, rights
Posted in Equality History | No Comments »
Bump in low-income rates expected as Statistics Canada set to redraw poverty line
Monday, December 23rd, 2019
The measure calculates the minimum a person or family would have to earn to afford a basket of goods and services needed to reach a modest or basic living standard… federal officials would decide “on the actions to be taken” with Statscan’s recommendations, including which to implement, and which to send for more research when it comes to making the changes. A final report from Statscan is expected in February.
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Should government have a say in what drugs are prescribed to patients?
Wednesday, December 18th, 2019
Canada is slow to approve new biosimilars; since 2006, Health Canada has approved only six, compared with 13 approvals by the European Medicines Agency. We also have among the highest prices in the world for both biologics and biosimilars, so more co-ordinated and aggressive price negotiations are required.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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