Canada and the U.S. have effectively decided to crack down on migrants crossing unofficial border points into Canada. Here’s why this approach misses the bigger picture.
Abortion rights demonstrators hold signs during a rally at the Texas Capitol in May 2022. The state has the most extreme anti-abortion laws in the U.S., and Mexican abortion referral services are now helping American women who require abortions.
(AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Mexico abortion referral networks are assisting American citizens and undocumented migrants seeking abortions. The model could provide inspiration for similar networks at the Canada-U.S. border.
Reports about declining naturalizations belie the historical and political obstacles that prevent many migrants from becoming citizens.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Today’s immigrants — who mostly come from the Global South — face a system of ever more complex chutes and ladders when it comes to their status in Canada.
Montana Republican congressman Ryan Zinke, once Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary, is among the politicians raising alarms about the Canada-U.S. border. Zinke referrred to migrants crossing into the U.S. from Canada as an assault.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Rather than demonize migrants, legislators everywhere should address the issues that force them to migrate.
Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth Marci Ien rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in October 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Research suggests that women may be underrepresented in politics because parties act as gatekeepers and tend to choose men over women as candidates.
Then-Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles visiting Canada in 2017. As a new monarch is crowned in Britain, is it time for Canada to have a head of state who is Canadian?
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
As Charles is crowned King, maybe the time has come for Canada to reassess its connection with the British monarchy and become a republic.
In this photo provided by the U.S. navy, sailors recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Feb. 5, 2023. A missile was fired by a U.S. F-22 off the Carolina coast to bring the balloon down.
(U.S. Navy via AP)
If there’s any silver lining to the aerial objects being shot down over North America over the last few days, maybe it’s that North Americans will recognize and appreciate the binational NORAD.
Canadian and German troops take part in a Canadian flag-raising ceremony as the first Canadian troops arrived at a UN base in Gao, Mali, in June 2018. Was the initiative just an exercise in box-checking for Justin Trudeau’s government?
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Far from Canada being back as a major player on the world stage, its presence has been diminished under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to his education minister during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 9, 2023.
(Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
It’s not in Canada’s interest, nor even in Ukraine’s, to risk nuclear Armageddon by pushing for Russian regime change.
Cathay Pacific crew members who worked on a flight from Hong Kong arrive at Vancouver International Airport. Canada now requires air travellers from China, Hong Kong and Macau to have a recent negative COVID-19 test result.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Canada’s new COVID-19 testing requirement for travellers arriving from China is unlikely to prevent the spread of new subvariants.
A paddler launches a canoe on Bass Lake in central Ontario on Canada Day, 2021. Could humble Canada be heading towards superpower status in the decades to come?
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Thornhill
In 1776, with a population of 2.5 million, few imagined that within two centuries, the U.S. would become the dominant superpower. It’s not inconceivable that Canada could do the same by 2223.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Defence Minister Anita Anand join U.S. officials in a NORAD briefing at the North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., in June 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
NORAD is having a moment in the wake of growing tensions between the United States, China and Russia. Will it last?
Despite being French-speaking, CSIS Deputy Director of Operations Michelle Tessier, Director David Vigneault and Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre Executive Director Marie-Hélène Chayer testified in English only before the Rouleau Commission in November 2022 in Ottawa.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Anne Levesque, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
The almost complete absence of French at the Public Order Emergency Commission does not come from a subservient reflex on the part of French speakers so much as their fear of being scorned.
Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon at a press conference on Oct. 17, 2022, at the Québec City National Assembly. He repeated that he did not want to swear an oath to King Charles.
The Canadian Press/Karoline Boucher
Yan Campagnolo, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa and François Larocque, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
No official French version of the Constitution Act of 1867 exists in 2022. This aberration calls into question the validity of taking an oath to the King in French.
Thomas Burelli, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa; Alexandre Lillo, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM); Alycia Leonard, University of Oxford; Elie Klee, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa; Erin Dobbelsteyn, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa; Justine Bouquier, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa, and Lauren Touchant, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
The historic agreement on a loss and damage fund was overshadowed by lack of progress on phasing out fossil fuels.
The Foreign Ministers Josep Borrell of the EU, James Cleverly of Great Britain, Yoshimasa Hayashi of Japan, Antony Blinken of the U.S., Annalena Baerbock of Germany, Melanie Joly of Canada, Catherine Colonna of France, and Antonio Tajani of Italy, at the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Münster, Germany, on Oct. 3, 2022.
(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Deliberately crafting economic relationships with countries that share similar political and social values with Canada has emerged as a tool to address current geopolitical issues.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese President Xi Jinping participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok on Nov. 18, 2022, three days after their public confrontation at a G20 meeting in Indonesia.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
The federal government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are showing courage in standing up publicly to China. But words must be matched with serious action.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping after taking part in the closing session at the G20 Leaders Summit in Bali, Indonesia on Nov. 16, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Xi Jinping thought he could chastise Justin Trudeau because this is the lesson the Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper governments had conveyed: Don’t take us seriously when we talk about rights.
The oil painting The Fathers of Confederation by Rex Woods (1968).
(Ourcommons.ca)
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance; Scientific Co-Director, Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society, Simon Fraser University