Since the October 2023 attack initiated against Israelis by Hamas, a surge in violence has engulfed not only Gaza but also the occupied West Bank and Israel. The war Israel launched against Gaza has resulted in the loss of 34,000 civilian lives, including an unknown number of humanitarian workers, journalists and United Nations staff, according to the Hamas-run health office in Gaza. Tensions have been exacerbated globally, with counter-terrorism and extremism experts flagging a rise in antisemitic hate crimes and anti-Muslim incidents, and the potential for nations like Iran or Russia to expl ..read more

The federal government introduced a recurring annual regulatory modernization bill in 2019 covering all regulatory agencies, including energy, agriculture, transportation, health and telecommunications. The proposed legislation is currently in consultation with businesses, industry associations, academics and Canadians about key components of the bill’s latest version, including granting federal regulatory bodies the power to set up what are known as regulatory sandboxes and incorporation by reference mechanisms (IBR). Regulatory sandboxes allow companies to try out different regulatory approa ..read more

Canada’s Housing Plan is pledging an ambitious multilateral approach to build more housing, faster and cheaper, for diverse groups. It includes noteworthy new funding programs and policies to preserve and expand community housing, including social, non-profit and co-operative housing. Read more: Housing co-ops could solve Canada's housing affordability crisis After decades of homeowner-centred policies, the new Tenant Protection Fund and Renters’ Bill of Rights commit more protections for tenants from excessive rent increases, forced evictions and other threats to their tenancies. But the new ..read more

Over the last several decades, prescription drugs have become critical to preventing, managing and treating health conditions, yet Canada’s health-care system has not been updated to ensure that all Canadians can access outpatient medications. After letting report after report recommending designs for drug programs gather dust, the Government of Canada is finally moving forward with testing “pharmacare” models. While details about these models are lacking, both seem to entail piecemeal expansion of drug coverage following separate negotiations with each province. As a comparative health system ..read more

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller recently expressed alarm over asylum claims by international students at private colleges. (Shutterstock) The Canadian government placed a cap on the number of study permits granted to international students earlier this year. The government stated that a rapid increase in the number of international students was putting added “pressure on housing, health care and other services.” In addition, Immigration Minister Marc Miller criticized some private colleges for the increasing number of refugee claims from their international students ..read more

A Torontonian stands at the intersection of Yonge St. and Dundas Ave. Addressing long-standing inequities in immigrant and migrant voter participation in Canada may help shine a spotlight on the social and economic hardships that immigrant and diasporic communities face. That includes health-care access and health outcomes. (Unsplash) Immigrant health research frequently refers to the notion that immigrants are generally healthier than people born in Canada but that their health worsens with time. The apparent trend has been attributed to a number of factors, including an unexpected lack of so ..read more

Canada’s House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights will soon begin hearings on antisemitism and Islamophobia. The process comes partly in response to claims that university and college campuses are unsafe spaces. With student protests — including at the University of Toronto and University of British Columbia — pressuring institutions to divest from Israeli militarization, the question of safety has come under scrutiny. In Québec, a recent injunction request to clear a student encampment at McGill University was rejected by a Superior Court judge who ruled that “the plain ..read more

Members of the New York Police Department load arrested protesters from Columbia University onto a bus on April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Julius Motal) On April 30, the New York City Police Department acted to evict pro-Palestinian protestors from occupying Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall at the request of university administration. Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, issued a statement explaining the action as the result of the “drastic escalation of many months of protest activity” that created “a disruptive environment for everyone.” Student protesters sympathetic to the plight ..read more

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced a $2.4-billion investment in artificial intelligence. Part of the funding will create an AI Safety Institute. But what is AI safety? Many countries, including Canada, the United States and those in the European Union, have pushed to curtail AI’s harms. Most of them are focused on the deployment and effects of AI. Because AI systems are so pervasive and diverse, governments should approach safety by breaking down AI into its components — algorithms, data and computing resources known simply as “compute.” Innovation in compute and algorit ..read more

Only two Canadian provinces have published policy proposals for dealing with future pandemics. (Shutterstock) The World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 5, 2023. In the year since, only two provinces — Alberta and Ontario — have published proposals for dealing with future health emergencies. As a public health economist, I have drawn five lessons from these reports that the remaining provinces might learn from COVID-19, and their implications for policies to deal with future pandemics. Communicable diseases can spread extremely quickly COVID-19 ..read more