Feature guests: Rabia Khedr, National Director – Disability Without Poverty, and Brian Dijkema, Vice-President of External Affairs – 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.

Consider this: Only five percent of federal government disability spending is on programs promoting employment; the rest goes to income supports of one form or another. And yet, the poverty rate of people with disabilities was 13.5% in 2019, which is disproportionately higher than it is for other Canadians.

Listen as we try to identify which barriers keep people with disabilities from finding rewarding, meaningful jobs and seek ways to break down those barriers.

Breaking Down Work Barriers for People with Disabilities is freely available online .

A French summary of Breaking Down Work Barriers for People with Disabilities is also available online.

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Feature guests: Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, Director of Cardus Religious Freedom and Faith Community Engagement, and Kristopher Kinsinger, a Cardus NextGEN Fellow, an Ontario lawyer, and the National Director of the Runnymede Society.

In this special podcast episode, we dive into the controversial issue of limits on religious freedom in Canada.

During a pandemic that’s dragged for almost two years, such controversies have become divisive, bitter disagreements. We’ve seen the results: trucker protests, ugly social media rhetoric, and defiance of public health orders – even by some houses of worship. While public health orders have affected all areas of society, including education, business, and our social lives, they have also affected religious expression and gatherings.

So, how well have authorities upheld religious freedom in Canada during the pandemic? How well have religious communities understood and exercised religious freedom? Think tank Cardus has stepped into this polarized debate with a new report, Reasonable Limits: How Far Does Religious Freedom Go in Canada? by University of Saskatchewan law professor Dwight Newman.

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.

Feature guests: Lisa Richmond, Vice-President of Research – Cardus & Brian Dijkema, Vice-President of External Affairs - Cardus

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. Thankfully, the premier has conditionally committed to ending the passports in January 2022, which is a small victory.

In the meantime, our open letter to Premier Ford has generated a lot of discussion. Some loved it, some hated it, and some wondered why Cardus would even step into such a controversy. So, we’d like to address some of those questions. Rather than our typical short episodes with long perspectives on building the common good, we’ve put together a special episode that diverges from that format. This is a long episode (though it’s still about building the common good!) and features two of the brightest minds at Cardus in simple conversation: Lisa Richmond, Vice-President of Research, and Brian Dijkema, Vice-President of External Affairs. Together, they’ll offer you a look under the hood of Cardus, clarify how we approach research and decide what kind of work we’ll undertake, and explain our thinking on vaccine passports and other related issues.

Listen in and enjoy. We hope you’ll learn something. And we hope you’ll tell us what you think. You can reach Lisa Richmond at lrichmond@cardus.ca and Brian Dijkema at bdijkema@cardus.ca. Of course, don’t be shy about liking this episode, sharing it, and leaving a comment here too. And do subscribe to The Long Way so that you won’t miss other future special episodes and seasons.

If you’re interested in our other COVID-related work, here are some links you may find helpful:

• Open letter to Ontario’s premier on vaccine passports
• Exit COVID: What have we learned and where should Canada be focusing post-pandemic
• COVID Vaccination Incentives for the Common Good

The Long Way is a podcast of think tank Cardus.

Thanks for listening!

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