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"Des universités sous tension" by Luc Vinet Recently appointed rector of the Université de Montréal, Luc Vinet presented his vision of postsecondary education to the Montreal Chamber of Commerce on November 8. In this excerpt, he advances the vital role universities play in the prosperity of Quebec and Canada. "The WTO plays Hong Kong: so little accomplished by so many" by Michael Hart and Bill Dymond Trade ministers from 149 nations met in Hong Kong over a week in December to push the Doha Round to a successful conclusion before the 2007 expiration of President Bush's fast-track authority to negotiate a deal without amendments by Congress. The result, write trade policy authorities Michael Hart and Bill Dymond, was a thin agreement to eliminate agricultural export subsidies by 2013, as well as to eliminate export subsidies on cotton in 2006. “Meagre fare indeed,” they write, “a triumph of process over substance.” Canada, once a world power in global trade talks, “sat largely on the sidelines, unable to contribute constructively.” "The Pearson decade: how defeat foretold victory" by Tom Kent The Pearson agenda for five years of two remarkably productive minority governments was actually born out of the Liberal Party’s devastating defeat in the Diefenbaker landslide of 1958 and the Grits’ disappointing score in the 1962 election, before they were finally returned to government in 1963. In opposition, the reform caucus of the Liberal Party obtained the upper hand over its managerial wing, as Pearson was determined that when called upon to govern again, they would be ready. Tom Kent, who held the pen on the Liberal reform agenda of the 1960s, recalls how his friend “Mike” eventually gained victory from a once-crushing defeat. "Get out the vote - not: increasing effort, declining turnout" by Nelson Wiseman In a decidedly contrarian view, Nelson Wiseman of the University of Toronto suggests declining voter rates in federal elections are not necessarily cause for alarm, especially to the extent that apathetic or misinformed voters are staying home. The abstention rate rose in every election between 1988 and 2004, in spite of extensive and expensive efforts by Elections Canada to encourage higher turnouts, particularly among youth voters targeted by its advocacy advertising and programs. Wiseman notes that the replacement of door-to-door enumeration by a permanent voters list may be part of the problem rather than part of the solution. “The personal contact with the enumerator can be human rather than detached and disembodied,” he writes. “It can heighten for many the sense of obligation to cast a ballot.” "Biosecurity: the next public policy imperative for Canada and the world" by Peter Stoett Biosecurity has become a buzzword since the anthrax attacks after 9/11, but it’s as old as the great plague of Athens, writes Concordia University’s Peter Stoett, which “killed one-third of the population and ended the Golden Age of Greece.” Invasive species, he writes, are a clear and present danger to Canada and all countries in a borderless biological world. “The zebra mussel made its maiden voyage from a European port to the Saint Lawrence Seaway” and beyond to the Great Lakes. Infectious diseases, from mad cow disease to SARS, have afflicted both Canadian live stock and our human population. More Canadians died from C-difficile in Quebec hospitals than in the 2003 SARS outbreak. And while the world waits in dread for a pandemic of bird-flu, another pandemic, AIDS, sweeps across Africa and Asia. In this analysis, both sobering and illuminating, Stoett offers some constructive suggestions for Canadian leadership on global biosecurity issues. "From SARS to avian flu - why Ottawa must lead Canada's response" by Kumanan Wilson and Harvey Lazar From SARS to avian flu, from West Nile Virus to mad cow disease, public health emergencies and the prospect of them in Canada made a strong case for Ottawa leading Canada's response. The 2003 SARS outbreak in Toronto was a reminder of the need for federal leadership in health emergencies with national implications, affecting the health of Canadians and the good name of Canada around the world. An emerging human avian flu pandemic in Canada, write Kumanan Wilson and Harvey Lazar, would require strong national leadership for “early detection of the outbreak and the mobilization of adequate public health resources.” "La préparation canadienne contre le bioterrorisme : entre sécurité et santé publique" by Julie Auger The SARS crisis that hit Toronto in 2003 was a serious challenge to Canada’s biosecurity preparedness. Julie Auger, Canada Research Chair in Foreign Affairs and Defence at UQAM, takes stock of the reforms that followed the National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health report in October 2003. She notes that the Canadian approach in this area is different from that adopted by the US, because it takes into account not only the military or criminal aspects of these threats, but also their medical aspects. In spite of a few obstacles in the implementation, Canada has adopted the principle of biosecurity, rather than that of bioterrorism which is the case in the US. But, since infectious diseases know no borders, this difference has not prevented these two neighbours from collaborating, she concludes. What the Chaoulli decision said about health care rhetoric vs. health care reality" by Stanley Hartt Was the Supreme Court’s decision last June against Quebec’s ban on private insurance for medically necessary services another landmark on the way to an American-style system or a wake-up call to government providers? Stanley Hartt writes that the decision was, among other things, a reality check: “We permit our politicians to studiously under-fund while pompously defending the five principles of the Canada Health Act,” writes Hartt, “provided they repeat often and loudly enough that “Canada will never have a two-tier health care system.” With waiting times for public health care undermining the standard of care, Hartt says, we already have a two-tier system: “the lucky and the unlucky!” "L'heure de vérité en santé" by L. Jacques Ménard The working committee on the sustainability of Quebec’s health and social services system was established In December 2004, after it became clear, in the context of the Forum des générations, that if nothing was done, and fast, the system was going to be in dire financial straights. The committee’s report, tabled in July 2005, put some numbers to the problem and also proposed short-, medium- and longterm solutions. Here, the committee’s president, L. Jacques Ménard, presents the report’s major conclusions and recommendations. "Lost in transition: finding a future for Kosovo" by Julian Wright In the late 1990s, Kosovo — a predominantly ethnic-Albanian province in the greater Serbian heartland of what was left of Yugoslavia — offered the world an object lesson in what can happen when minority-majority tensions and political expediency collide. As thousands upon thousands of Albanian Kosovars fled Slobodan Milosevic’s campaign of village-by-village ethnic cleansing, the United States galvanized NATO support for the strategic bombing campaign that ultimately ended the violence and drove Milosevic from power. Now, with the drastically reduced Serb population of Kosovo fighting to remain in Serbia, its Albanians fighting for independence and the tensions occasionally erupting in renewed violence, the future of Kosovo, of the Balkans and of Europe hinges on the ambitious project of agreeing on a new status for what was once the “black hole” of Europe. "The multiplication of news platforms: the 'privatization' of the media" by Darin Barney With the multiplication of media platforms and the dumbing down of the news media, how are serious public policy debates to be conducted in such a diffuse and diverse environment? With so many outlets, and so many voices contending for the public’s attention, how do “the media” influence and shape public policy debates and outcomes? McGill’s Darin Barney addressed these questions at a recent conference co-sponsored by IRPP and the Trudeau Foundation. “Of all the things that can be said about mobile phones, Blackberries, TV, PlayStation, commercial radio, the iPod, and even many of the Blogs,” he writes, “perhaps the most surprising thing is how very privatizing they have become, despite the deluge of communication they mediate.” "Literacy policy: getting Canada ready for the knowledge economy" by Glenn Pound According to several international studies, Canada does well in the education field. Yet, says Glenn Pound from the Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy, a recent, comprehensive international survey shows that 42 percent of Canadians scored below a functional level of literacy, that this rate has not improved over the last 10 years, and that Canadian youth are actually faring worse. In this article, Pound reviews the numbers, the innovative work being done in various provinces to try and address the problem, and argues that in order to remedy the situation, “our strategies to deal with this issue will need to take a wider view of adult basic education and begin to see it as not just a labour market issue but also a social justice issue.” Book Excerpt: Canada Among Nations, 2004 by Graham Fraser When Jean Chrétien took office in 1993, his foreign policy was chiefly driven by commercial considerations. Trade trumped diplomacy, as Graham Fraser observes in this excerpt from Canada Among Nations, 2004, the 20th annual collection of essays in the series from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. By the time he left office a decade later, Chrétien was a more confident figure on the world stage, focusing on foreign aid and Africa, as well as endorsing the Kyoto Accord on global warming. Relations with the United States, which he had cultivated during the presidency of Bill Clinton, soured with the arrival of George W. Bush. Book Review: James Allan Evans reviews four books on Iraq [summary not available] "Le plan Couillard" by Alain Noël [summary not available] |
