By: Sophia Stavropoulos This past year at the annual United Nations Climate Change Convention (COP26) – where over 100 countries come together to discuss how to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss – Canada agreed to the Glasgow Climate Pactwhich aimed to push global efforts to address climate change to new levels. Despite this ‘achievement’ many critique…
Category: Opinion
A Tale of 3 Cities: Spatial Concentration of Poverty in Toronto
By: Hilda-Matilda Idegwu Labelling Toronto as an “urban hub of vitality” is a blatant disregard of the significant amount of the city’s population experiencing poverty at alarming rates. Waking up every morning on the corner of King and Portland (famously known as the Entertainment district) it’s easy to notice the hustle and bustle of workers…
Holistic “Education for All”: The Case for Student Services
By: Ally Buchanan “Education for all” has existed as a policy goal and buzzword for years. Increasing education in a population, especially historically excluded groups, provides social mobility, improved labour forces, and increased diversity in academia. However, universities and colleges as they currently exist are not built for “all,” and neither are the priorities of provincial education…
Lifting Canadians with Disabilities out of Economic Vulnerability with a Guaranteed Basic Income
By: Anastasia Volkov The Canadian government implemented several income support programs to enable Canadians to meet basic needs while facing temporary or permanent job loss or hours reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was in place from March to October 2020. It was a “simple application process that made use…
Federal Prisons and COVID-19: The Call for Decarceration
By: Danielle Foppiano The Equity, Diversity and Public Policy Initiative (EDPP) is a graduate student-led organization at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. We aim to explore the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policy. We promote the adoption of an…
Perhaps too early to start celebrating: Fairness and Equity in the Distribution of a COVID-19 Vaccine
By: Sonja Perisic The world was roaring with the recent week’s announcement that Moderna, an American pharmaceutical company, has developed a vaccine more than 94% effective in preventing COVID-19. Canada has already secured up to 358 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from a wide range of different manufacturers and has signed six contracts for tens of millions more vaccine doses with pharmaceutical giants, such as AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer….