Canada is only months away from legalizing and regulating the production, sale and use of cannabis for medicinal and recreational purposes. Yet, as we explore in our cover story this issue, the plan is rife with contradictions: a fledgling industry populated by former police chiefs; the fact bills C-45 and C-46 will create dozens of new pot-related offences in the process of removing some of the old ones; the continued prohibition on growing more than four or five plants at home while Canada's "licensed producers" are expected to make billions.
Gender equality
Disruption. It’s the catchphrase du jour, usually wielded by one presumptuous tech upstart or another to challenge the market power of an allegedly ossifying incumbent. Frequently, but not always, to justify the displacement of low- or middle-income workers with an even more precarious, low-cost, on-demand workforce.
This report card reviews the federal government's progress in 16 key policy areas at the halfway mark of their term. It finds that, despite some positive first steps, the Liberals’ ambitious talk hasn’t been backed up with the action needed to make these promises a reality.
With two years left in the term, the report card includes suggested next steps to help the Liberal government fulfill the progressive agenda they committed to leading up to the election. Among the recommendations:
OTTAWA—After more than 200 sitting days in Parliament, the federal government has not lived up to the vast majority of its progressive promises, according to new analysis released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
Photo by Mathieu-Etienne Gagnon/OXFAM
PM Trudeau talks to Tina Brown during the Women in the World event in Toronto on September 11, 2017 (photo taken from PMO Flickr account).
Illustration by Alisha Davidson
In the game of settler-nation relay, Canada ranks second in the world for largest per-capita immigration rates, one in five Canadians being foreign-born. We’ve had this immigrant-fuelled-economy thing down pat for many decades now, especially when it comes to ensuring the immigration stream prioritizes highly skilled workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (aka STEM). It should give us a clear advantage in that other race—to become one of the world’s leading knowledge economies.
In late October, the CCPA released its fourth annual ranking of the best and worst cities in Canada to be a woman. The report by CCPA senior researcher Kate McInturff, our cover feature in this issue of the Monitor, provides a snapshot of the gaps in men’s and women’s access to economic security, personal security, education, health and positions of leadership in communities across the country.
Also in this issue:
This annual study provides a snapshot of the gaps in men and women’s access to economic security, personal security, education, health, and positions of leadership in Canada’s largest 25 metropolitan areas. It measures these gaps in a given community in order to capture inequalities that can be attributed, at least in part, to discrimination based on gender; it also serves as a reminder that, with the right choices and policies, these gaps can be closed.