Debate In Canada Research Articles

Exploring assisted dying policies for mature minors: A cross jurisdiction comparison of the Netherlands, Belgium & Canada

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) was decriminalized in Canada in 2016 for individuals 18 years or older who met eligibility criteria. Currently, individuals younger than 18 years are legally permitted to access an assisted death in the Netherlands and Belgium, but not in Canada. To-date, no work has compared factors shaping the policy processes and outcomes in these three countries. Therefore, our objective was to explore the legalities of assisted dying for minors in the Netherlands and Belgium, along with how each jurisdiction arrived at their respective policies and why the trajectory differed in Canada. After screening and compiling peer-reviewed and grey literature, we used Yanow's interpretive method for comparative work to review included materials. We framed findings using Hajer's discourse coalition theory. The Dutch and Belgian contexts relied upon a parliamentary approach in legalizing assisted dying for mature minors that emphasized suffering, whereas Canada's approach was initiated by a Supreme Court of Canada decision and emphasized human rights. While the Netherlands and Belgium viewed mature minors as capable to make decisions about assisted dying, the Canadian position on mature minors’ decisional capacity with respect to assisted dying remains unsettled. This work contributes to understanding how context and sociopolitical values shape assisted dying legislations and treatment of mature minors, while highlighting areas requiring further study amid ongoing debate in Canada.

Access to justice in Canada: A noteworthy experience

The article examines the Canadian experience regarding access to justice, i.e., the activities of the commissions of inquiry and the initiation of the nationwide dialog on rethinking the concept of access to justice.
 It is indicated that access to justice is considered in Canada as one of the national priorities. Among the wide range of contributing factors, it is distinguished the activities of commissions of inquiry and the impact of their reports, a nationwide public debate, the legal problem surveys and researches, analysis of their data, the use of indicators to measure progress, etc.
 It is noted that the independent commissions of inquiry can be understood as an established and effective mechanism used not only to investigate disasters or accusations of public figures (fact-finding inquiries), but also to comprehensively and impartially inquire into issues of public concern, make recommendations for the development of public policy and advise the government (policy-based inquiries); therefore, the reports of such commissions have a de facto significant impact on society and contribute to reforms; the best examples regarding access to justice are the Macdonald Report and the Abella Report. The contribution of judges to the commissions of inquiry is emphasized, given judge’ professional skills of independent and impartial consideration, assessing evidence, running a procedurally fair process, following procedural requirements, etc. The influence of the reports of the commissions of inquiry on the public discussion of the issue of access to justice is characterized.
 It was analyzed that the public debate in Canada regarding access to justice was initiated at the end of 1990s. both at the provincial level and at the federal (nationwide) level, and was primarily concerned with rethinking the attitude to the concept of “access to justice”. It was emphasized that the Ukrainian translation of the term «access to justice» does not reflect all the nuances of the original. Since the concept of “access to justice” arose and developed in the English-speaking environment, where fairness (“equity”) and the system of laws in a country thatjudges and punishes people are denoted by the same word “justice”, therefore, “access to justice” refers primarily to fairness and not just to a court as a state institution. It is emphasized that although the concept of “people-centered justice” did not yet exist at that time, Canada put consideration of the individual and his or her legal problems at the heart of justice responses.

A qualitative study of refugee men's mental health in non-metropolitan Manitoba

In bringing together literature on masculinity, refugee mental health experiences, and rural and non-metropolitan settings, we identify a gap surrounding the mental health experiences of refugee men in non-metropolitan places, and in non-metropolitan Canada specifically. In this article, we explore how refugee men in non-metropolitan Canada understood mental health; what they perceive to be the most significant barriers to good mental health; and the perceived access to and quality of support services. This collaborative qualitative study of refugee men's mental health was based in Brandon, Manitoba, and involved focus groups with a total of 29 participants, conducted in three different languages. Participants were from various countries in East Africa and the Middle East and ranged in age from 18 to 61 years old. Participants revealed diverse understandings of mental health related to cultural and religious/spiritual teachings as well as stressors that were embedded in their non-metropolitan community and their transnational journeys and relationships. Participants also indicated that both local stressors (e.g., employment/unemployment problems, challenges making a life/future) and distant stressors (e.g., concern for the safety of family in the participants’ home countries, the separation of family participants due to migration, logistical difficulties in communicating with loved ones outside of Canada, and grief over war and conflict in participants’ countries of origin) significantly impacted their mental health. We conclude that a holistic approach to health supports, including mental, physical, and spiritual wellness is important for refugee men in rural/non-metropolitan areas. These findings can inform policies, programs and funding of initiatives supporting newcomers and refugees to rural and non-metropolitan areas and contributes meaningfully to the refugee dispersion debate in Canada.

Report of the Independent Review of Freedom of Speech in Australian Higher Education Providers

This summary does not claim to be preferred in any way to a reading of the complete report with its succinct and simple recommendations, including “A Model Code for the Protection of Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom in Australian Higher Education Providers”. The review is an important document for all institutions dedicated to teaching, particularly at the tertiary level, in having a shared understanding of freedom of speech within an institution. The Review involved a two-stage consultation process with universities and other stakeholders between November 2018 and March 2019, and it also considered recent pertinent debates in Canada, New Zealand, the UK and USA. The latter included consideration of six major universities there.

How can Canada reduce surgical backlogs without expanding privatization?

Growing surgical backlogs during the COVID-19 pandemic have revived debate in Canada about the merits of allowing patients to pay privately for faster access to care. However, speakers at the first Canadian Doctors for Medicare policy summit argued it’s a myth that a parallel private system would

Race, police stops, and perceptions of anti-Black police discrimination in Toronto, Canada over a quarter century

PurposeBlack Canadians have a historically tenuous relationship with the police. Negative perceptions of the police held by Black people have traditionally resulted from high levels of police contact and perceived negative treatment during these encounters. Well-publicized instances of police violence involving Black civilians have also fostered hostility and mistrust of the police, often resulting in social unrest. Recently, in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of American police, people across Canada rallied in support of the Black Lives Matter social movement and calls to defund the police entered mainstream political consciousness. At the same time, police leaders have vehemently argued that racial bias within Canadian policing has been greatly reduced as the result of various reform efforts.Design/methodology/approachThis paper explores the police racism debate in Canada through an analysis of three waves of survey data collected between 1994 and 2019.FindingsDespite well-publicized reform efforts, the authors' findings demonstrate that little has changed over the past 25 years. Black people still report much higher rates of police stop and search activity than people from other racial backgrounds. Furthermore, racial disparities in negative police contact remain strongly significant after controlling for other theoretically relevant factors, including self-reported deviance and community crime levels. Finally, reflecting their negative experiences, most Black people still perceive Canadian law enforcement as racially biased. Nonetheless, the data do reveal one significant change: the proportion of white people who perceive police discrimination against Black people has increased dramatically over this same time period. The paper concludes by discussing the prospects of meaningful reform in light of the current findings.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on race and policing through an examination of 25 years of survey data across three waves of collection.

Parliamentary Debates in Canada (1901–2015)

AbstractThis article analyzes the effect of procedural rule change on the dynamics of parliamentary speeches in the Canadian House of Commons between 1901 and 2015. During this period, several new rules were introduced to reduce the opportunities for private members to speak during the debates so that the government could get its business done within an acceptable amount of time. Our analysis looks at the impact of these rule changes on the content and orientation of all individual speeches made by members of Parliament. The results indicate that parliamentary rules had an important effect on the topic and duration of debates. Our findings also confirm that procedural changes contributed to a heightening of partisan polarization in the Canadian Parliament over time and disproportionately reduced the influence of government backbenchers in the legislative process.

Framing the Energy East pipeline debate in Canada: Public opinion is sensitive to public safety and economic considerations

Against the backdrop of rising energy demand and growing public concern over climate change , the building of new and the expansion of existing oil and gas pipelines has emerged as a hotly contested political issue. Yet little is known about how elite debate over pipelines influences mass public opinion. Using the case of TransCanada’s Energy East project, this study examines the public’s sensitivity to arguments commonly employed by actors on both sides of pipeline debates. We find that arguments drawing attention to public safety or economic benefits are effective at moving public opinion. Meanwhile, arguments highlighting the impact of pipelines on greenhouse gas emissions are ineffective. These results have implications for the literature on framing as well as for policy actors engaged in debates over the expansion of fossil fuel energy infrastructure in the context of global climate change and the energy transition.

Unsettled histories: Transgressing History education practice in New Brunswick, Canada

In this paper, we examine national trends in Canadian history education with regard to decolonising history education and how those trends have been manifested in the context of the province of New Brunswick’s Anglophone education system. We begin with outlining three key characteristics of Canadian history education: it has been assimilationist and destructive for the languages, cultures, and collective memories of Indigenous Peoples; it has turned in recent years to an emphasis on teaching historical thinking; and there is an ongoing scholarly and professional debate in Canada about the best way to include attention to Indigenous Peoples and their history in Canadian schools. We show how these trends have been and are present in New Brunswick and argue that unsettling traditional approaches to history education involves rethinking approaches to historical content and processes as well as taking seriously the capacity of young people to engage deeply with the past.

Expanding health care coverage in Canada: a dramatic shift in the debate.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has shifted the health policy debate in Canada. While the pre-pandemic focus of policy experts and government reports was on the question of whether to add outpatient pharmaceuticals to universal health coverage, the clustering of pandemic deaths in long-term care facilities has spurred calls for federal standards in long-term care (LTC) and its possible inclusion in universal health coverage. This has led to the probability that the federal government will attempt to expand medicare as Canadians have known it for the first time in over a half century. However, these efforts are likely to fail if the federal government relies on the shared-cost federalism that marked the earlier introduction of medicare. Two alternative pathways are suggested, one for LTC and one for pharmaceuticals, that are more likely to succeed given the state of the Canadian federation in the early 21st century.

Bureaucracy without alienation

In The Public’s Law, Blake Emerson proposes a ‘Progressive theory’ of administrative law that fuses Hegelian and democratic elements. The Progressive theory calls on administrators to make autonomous ethical and political judgments as opposed to restricting themselves to the instrumental application of statutory mandates. Such judgments are to respond to a diffuse process of deliberative engagement with the public. This review essay expounds the Progressive theory and discusses its relevance for administrative law debates in Canada. It closes with consideration of an important challenge to the theory – namely, whether it relies on an overly comprehensive conception of democracy.

Actors and justifications in media debates on Arctic climate change in Finland and Canada: A network approach

In this paper, we examine the centrality of policy actors and moral justifications in media debates on Arctic climate change in Finland and Canada from 2011–2015. We take a network approach on the media debates by analysing relations between the actors and justifications, using discourse network analysis on a dataset of 745 statements from four newspapers. We find that in both countries, governments and universities are the most central actors, whereas business actors are the least central. Justifications that value environmental sustainability and scientific knowledge are most central and used across actor types. However, ecological justifications are sometimes in conflict with market justifications. Government actors emphasize new economic possibilities in the Arctic whereas environmental organizations demand greater protection of the vulnerable Arctic. Ecological justifications and justifications that value international cooperation are more central in the Finnish debate, whereas justifications valuing sustainability and science, as well as those valuing national sovereignty, are more central in the Canadian debate. We conclude that in addition to the centrality of specific policy actors in media debates, the use of different types of moral justifications also reflects political power in the media sphere.

Democratic Struggle or National Uprising? The Canadian Rebellions in British Political Thought, 1835–1840

ABSTRACT This article argues that the role of the 1837–38 Canadian rebellions in early nineteenth-century British political thought has been under-appreciated. It shows that they were the occasion of major reconceptualizations of two important terms that would later become central to the political lexicon of modern Britain: ‘democracy’ and ‘nationality’. From the perspective of the Tories and Whigs who framed the rebellions in terms of ‘nationality’, the Canadian debate required reconfiguring previous uses of the word, in order to argue that some ‘nationalities’ were more worthy of respect than others, and that protecting ‘nationality’ could be compatible with membership of an imperial, multi-national state. Additionally, it also reinforced previous negative uses of ‘democracy’ by critics of the rebellions relying on familiar tropes inherited from the French Revolution. But the debate also showcased the quickly shifting Radical uses of both words. For the Radicals, who framed the Canadian crisis in terms of ‘democracy’, it provided a platform to deploy emerging Tocquevillian understandings of democracy in the North American context and reintroduce the word in British political discourse. Via the Durham report of 1839, it also established more civic-minded Radical redefinitions of ‘nationality’ as a core argument for British imperialist policy.

Can we still manage the relationship with patients?

Can we still manage the relationship with patients?

Boycotts and Revolution

Abstract This article explores the debates in Canada over the call for Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against apartheid South Africa, and demonstrates how the African National Congress (ANC) became a significant reference point for both supporters and critics of the anti-apartheid movement. Through close engagement with Canadian civil society, the ANC built its status as the exclusive voice of South Africans, a position that allowed it to influence the movement’s demands, including its support for armed struggle. Friends of South Africa, unable or unwilling to defend apartheid itself, instead focused their efforts on demonizing and delegitimizing the ANC as terrorists and agents of the Soviet Union—but this failed to significantly damage the reputation of the ANC or weaken the call for boycotts. This article is based on extensive new archival research from sources including the Canadian Mission of the ANC and the Canadian-South African Society (an affiliate of the South Africa Foundation).

Nature's Bread: The Natural Food Debate in Canada, 1940–1949

Nature's Bread: The Natural Food Debate in Canada, 1940–1949

Economic Policy of the Justin Trudeau Government

Economic policy of the Justin Trudeau’s government was at the centre of the pre-election political debate in Canada in 2019. The article looks at the essence and the results of the economic and social policy measures implemented by the federal government in the four years following the Liberal party’s victory at the 2015 general election. The 2019 Budget program is analysed in detail as it served as the governing party’s main economic document before election scheduled for October 21.

Russian-Canadian relations during J. Trudeau government: Domestic Political Context

In contrast to Сanadian scientists, Russian researchers majoring in Canadian studies have not paid proper attention to the impact of domestic factors on the Canadian foreign policy-making. To fill this gap, the author examined the policy of Justin Trudeau towards Russia through the prism of political and public debates in Canada. The article looks at the views of the political elite, the positions of political parties, at the public attitudes and recommendations of experts. The analysis has shown that relations with Russia moved to the background of the Justin Trudeau foreign policy agenda, giving priority to relations with the US and China. While in the first years of Justin Trudeau government there was disagreement in the Canadian elite regarding Russian-Canadian relations, after 2017 anti-Russian consensus was reached, including on the question of the so-called Russia's intervention in the democratic process in Canada. At the same time, the research of scholars and experts presents non-trivial assessments and criticisms of the prevailing anti-Russian line. The author thinks that for the elaboration of expert proposals for revival of Canada-Russia dialogue it is relevant to keep track of the evolution taking place in Canada's political and public discussions.

Remand as a Cross-Institutional System: Examining the Process of Punishment before Conviction

Currently in Canada, there are more legally innocent people in custody in provincial/territorial prisons than there are sentenced prisoners. This group, known as remand prisoners, constituted 37% of the total prison population – federal and provincial/territorial – in Canada in 2015. Despite growing public attention and legal awareness of the remand problem, little is known about the human costs of pre-trial detention. I outline some of these costs to individuals through a discussion of three distinctive dimensions of remand imprisonment: arrest, court appearances, and daily life in custody. Based on interviews with 120 remand prisoners (60 male, 60 female) at four maximum-security provincial prisons in Ontario, I demonstrate that the system imposes many punishments on individuals long before – and often in the absence of – conviction. The consequences of remand custody have implications for our understanding of the nature of punishment before conviction and for contemporary legal debates in Canada on the issue of pre-trial credit.

God & Government

This article focuses on a debate that raged in Upper Canada during the early and mid-nineteenth century over the degree to which civil authorities should assume responsibility for promoting societal virtue. Supporters of state-aided Christianity, many of whom were Tories, clashed with critics of close church-state ties, many of whom were Reformers. The catalyst for this conflict was the Clergy Reserves endowment. Drawing on works that situate British North American affairs in an expansive interpretive framework, this article maintains that the Upper Canadian debate over state-aided Christianity was subsumed within a larger conflict regarding the church-state relationship that originated in early modern England and played itself out across the North Atlantic World.