The Long Way Cardus

Canada needs to break down the barriers that stop people with disabilities from getting good jobs. Think-tank Cardus has released a landmark report, Breaking Down Work Barriers for People with Disabilities. It challenges decision-makers to move beyond an emphasis on income assistance to close the employment gap that too many Canadians face because of a disability. Our special guests are Rabia Khedr, National Director of Disability Without Poverty, and Brian Dijkema, Vice-President of External Affairs at Cardus. Listen as we try to identify and break down the barriers keep people with disabilities from finding rewarding, meaningful jobs.

How well have authorities upheld religious freedom in Canada during the pandemic? How well have religious communities understood and exercised religious freedom? To find a way through the extremes on either side of this issue, Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, Director of Cardus Religious Freedom and Faith Community Engagement, has an extended conversation with Kristopher Kinsinger, a Cardus NextGEN Fellow, an Ontario lawyer, and the National Director of the Runnymede Society.

After giving a “hard no” to COVID vaccine passports in Ontario over the summer of 2021, Premier Doug Ford did an about-face and imposed a passport system on the province in September. Was that a good and effective change? Is the policy switch justified? Think tank Cardus examined the issue, analyzed the available facts, and concluded the premier had neither made an effective case for vaccine passports nor explained why he suddenly changed his mind on the issue. What’s more, we concluded that while vaccinations against COVID are necessary and safe, imposing passports to access public places wasn’t likely to help the situation. Cardus even wrote an open letter to the premier challenging him to end a vaccine passport system that is “unjustified, unnecessary, and harmful overreach with serious short- and long-term consequences” and offering a series of better options to protect public health.

For the final Season 3 episode of The Long Way, we return to the theme of news media bias in Canada and getting better journalism. We can accept from the outset that there aren’t any easy answers. But we can at least make progress toward understanding what is going on in the world of journalism today while hoping to see a better end product. Among the various aspects of journalism we examine is the way political news media handle the sharing of opinions – something our feature guest, Prof. Lydia Miljan from the University of Windsor, picks up in her comments on the podcast.

How should Indigenous reconciliation in Canada look in practical terms? We put that question to Melissa Mbarki, originally from Treaty 4 in Saskatchewan. Her answers aren't the typical fare you might expect!

Feature Guest: Michael Geist, University of Ottawa professor and the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law
When the federal government introduced Bill C-10 to update broadcast regulations, here is the kind of headlines they likely didn't want:
CBC: Your free speech is at risk with Ottawa’s push to regulate online content, experts warn
National Post: Full-blown assault on free expression
Toronto Sun: Canada’s disturbing censorship conversation
Toronto Star: Uploads to social media could be regulated under proposed changes to Canada’s broadcasting law
You can add to all that one of the earliest outlets to cover Bill C-10 – the Ottawa-based, regulation, law, and lobbyist-watching hawk-eyes at Blacklock’s Reporter, which writes about the “enforcement of a YouTube censorship bill.”
The controversy around Bill C-10 stems from its broad reach to bring internet streaming services under the regulatory control of Canada’s broadcast regulator, the CRTC. That was controversial enough, but the recent move to take away the exemption for social media and content uploaded by individuals really got people talking.
So, The Long Way has gone right to one of the experts in the field to get the low-down on what wrong with Bill C-10 and why it should matter to all of us: Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa professor and the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law.
“Having the broadcast regulator treat all of this other speech, legitimate speech that is protected under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, I think it has a chilling effect,” Geist tells The Long Way. “In a democracy like ours, we don’t speak with permission of the state.”
Geist goes on to explain just how badly Bill C-10 in its current form could erode fundamental freedoms in Canada.
Also, if you’ve been listening to The Long Way regularly, you’ll know that field reporter Peter Stockland looked into some aspects of the C-10 controversy in Episode 1 of this season. And before that – as early as February 2021 – he was reporting on it in Convivium, a digital magazine published by Cardus.
Want to know more?
Check out Michael Geist’s blog and his own podcast, Law Bytes.
And for a different analysis of Bill C-10, do check out this article from cartt.ca.
If you enjoyed this episode of The Long Way, don’t be shy about liking it or leaving a comment, or even subscribing or following this podcast wherever you heard it. Thanks for listening!
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