By: Sean Cameron Canada joined other nations in committing to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 when it passed the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act in 2021. These commitments signal that governments around the world recognize the urgent need for stronger action to mitigate the effects of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has definitively stated that…
Category: Explainers
The Effectiveness of Fossil Fuel Divestment: A Historical Analysis
By: Anna Hardie On October 27 2022, University of Toronto announced its commitment to divest from all direct and indirect fossil fuel investments by 2030. Since 2017, ten Canadian universities have committed to divesting from fossil fuels with 40% of these divestment announcements made in just this past year. The increased momentum in calling for academic institutions to divest…
Is Canada Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies?
By: Anna Hardie According to BloombergNEF, between 2015-2019 Canada increased fossil fuel support by 40%. These funds havegone on to support pipelines such as the Trans Mountain pipeline, Keystone Pipeline, and Coastal GasLink. Yet, Canada is also obligated under the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act to have a Net-Zero economy by 2050. Further, Canada has made a promise to phase out all inefficient…
COVID-19 Policy and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
By: David Côté Whether it be non-essential business closures, vaccine passports, social gathering limits, or otherwise, COVID-19 policy and civil liberties have become intertwined. Now two years into the pandemic, people are increasingly wondering when and why certain government actions are justified. A basic understanding of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“Charter”) is…
Income Inequality in Canada: A Pre-Election Primer
By: Hugh Ragan and Jack Pankratz With the inequities exposed by the pandemic fresh in people’s memory, and an election looming for September 20, Canadians will be looking for their political leaders to promise progress on economic inequality in the month ahead. Although the troubling patterns of American inequality may have spurred a worldwide reckoning on the…
Everything You Wanted to Know about Laicity But Were Afraid to Ask
By: Rachel May The Quebec ban on religious symbols, enacted as “An Act respecting the laicity of the State” and commonly known as Bill 21, has always been controversial. Canadians are both passionate and sensitive about the subject matter, an explosive combination. Combine that with the apparent contradiction of certain rights and freedoms guaranteed by…
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