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Do you speak both of Canada’s official languages? Will your children? In a post published on 5 April 2018 on the “President’s Blog” of the Institute for 21st Century Questions, 2008 Foundation scholar Irvin Studin made the case for French immersion programming in Canada. As first argued in an article published by The Toronto Star on 20 February 2018, Studin demonstrated how the “pitifully low levels of French-English bilingualism” in Canada have no other cause than a “lack of national seriousness.” He emphasized the dire societal and strategic implications of dying bilingualism. The size of the talent pool from which Canada’s prime ministers, senior federal public servants, diplomats, premiers, and heads of national agencies are chosen would shrink, resulting in a form of linguistic elitism. More generally, decreasing levels of multilingualism would imply less engagement in the “four-point strategic game” of the century involving America, China, Russia, and Europe. Studin concluded that encouraging French immersion as well as third and fourth languages – Indigenous and foreign alike – is the key to both Canada’s domestic administration and external strategy.

Irvin Studin is a 2008 Foundation scholar, the president of the Institute for 21st Century Questions, and editor-in-chief and publisher of Global Brief magazine. Studin is also a visiting professor at Université du Québec à Montreal with the Raoul-Dandurand Chair. Read his blog post here and his article here.

The uniqueness of Canada’s private refugee sponsorship program has attracted global interest in the last few years. While speaking at the University of New South Wales, 2017 Foundation fellow Audrey Macklin presented lessons other countries could learn from the program while “[dispelling] the romanticism” all too often associated with Canadian policies. Noting that global resettlement numbers relative to migration flows remain trivial, Macklin focused on the program’s impact on the Canadian sponsors themselves. Macklin’s remarks – broadcast on ABC’s Big Ideas program (the Australian equivalent of CBC Ideas) – demonstrated how sponsoring refugees redefines the boundaries of citizenship and transforms the “national narrative.” At the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, Macklin’s fellowship project aims to create knowledge about private refugee sponsors in the Western world.

Audrey Macklin is a 2017 Foundation fellow, as well as the director of the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies and the chair in Human Rights Law at the Faculty of Law, and teaches at the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto. Listen to the program here.

Power and vulnerability dynamics in urban housing only get steeper when gender comes into play. In an interview (French only) for Radio-Canada’s “Les années lumières” on 8 April 2018, 2016 Foundation scholar Marie-Ève ​​Desroches explained how cities simultaneously can address housing and health inequities, in particular for vulnerable women. Desroches noted how public health policies encourage projects to build community support housing. Through her comparative study of Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver, she concluded that these urban housing projects can reduce women’s vulnerability and help address the health inequalities that remain all too prevalent in Canadian urban areas.

Marie-Ève Desroches is a 2016 Foundation scholar and a doctoral candidate in urban studies at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique. Listen to her interview.

In all likelihood, the raspberries, plums, and peaches you will buy this summer at the supermarket will have been picked by a migrant worker from Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program. 2015 Foundation scholar Anelyse Weiler was cited in an article published on 3 April 2018 by Concrete Garden shedding light on the program’s structural racism and inequality. She denounced the roles played by both powerful agricultural lobbies and the federal government in maintaining the status quo and the “white supremacy and institutionalized racism and classism” perpetuated by the program. Rather than boycott conventional agriculture products or grow backyard gardens, one solution would be to grant permanent immigration status to the labourers upon arrival, Weiler argued, as “it would put the onus on the government to address how low wages operate throughout the capitalist agricultural system.”

Anelyse Weiler is a 2015 Foundation scholar and a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Toronto. Read the full article here.

As the chair of Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy at the University of British Columbia, 2017 Foundation scholar Stephanie Lake hosted an art show and student community dialogue on the opioid crisis on campus. In an article published on 29 March 2018 by The Ubyssey, Lake declared that the impact of the opioid crisis on students remains rarely discussed, despite the fact that substance use is a part of Western student culture. Creating a space for honest and vulnerable dialogue is a first step towards understanding how youth experiences the crisis – and towards sensible policy change.

Stephanie Lake is a 2017 Foundation scholar, a doctoral student in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, and a researcher with the BC Centre on Substance Use at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. Read the article here.

Switzerland is known worldwide for its banks, watches, chocolates – and assisted suicides. A pioneer in this domain, it has been followed by Belgium, Canada, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, and several American and Australian states, which help shape new approaches to medical aid in dying. In an interview (French only) published on 10 April 2018 by 24 Heures Suisse, 2016 Foundation scholar Samuel Blouin examined assisted dying in Switzerland as well as its potential applications to minors and in cases where mental health is at play. In his opinion, the international debate that has emerged on medical aid in dying reflects how difficult it can be for social practices and policies to reconcile different perceptions of the end of life. Later in the week, in an interview (French only) for Swiss radio RTS's "La Matinale" on 13 April 2018, Blouin further explored the differences between assisted suicide and medical aid in dying in Switzerland and Quebec respectively, as well as the more or less medicalizing public policies these terms reflect.

Blouin co-organized the HESAV symposium on assisted dying in Europe and North America from 9 to 13 April 2018 (text and information in French only). 2015 Foundation fellow and symposium attendee Jocelyn Downie will produce a joint publication with Blouin and the conference’s co-organizers.

Samuel Blouin is a 2016 Foundation scholar and a doctoral candidate in sociology and religious science at Université de Montréal and Université de Lausanne. Read his interview with 24 Heures Suisse here and listen to his interview with RTS here.

Jocelyn Downie is a 2015 Foundation fellow and a professor in the Faculties of Law and Medicine at Dalhousie University.

The mayor of Victoria, British Columbia, is required to take an oath of allegiance to the Queen in order to be sworn in. When 2006 Foundation scholar Lisa Help declined to take the oath in 2014, claiming it failed to mention the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations, a wind of change blew onto Canada’s most royalist city. In a Globe and Mail article published on 13 April 2018, Mayor Helps’s accomplishments are weighed against her challenges as she prepares to run for a second four-year term. From bike lanes to affordable housing projects, Helps’s decisions have aimed for long-term rather than short-term impact, inevitably irking parts of the provincial capital’s electorate. Whether or not she is reelected as Victoria’s mayor, writes the author, Helps’s progressive leadership and strong community building initiatives will leave a lasting imprint on the city.

Lisa Helps is a 2006 Foundation scholar and the mayor of Victoria. Read the article here.