Pod Bless Canada

A year has passed since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada with full force, and the results are in on how severely the impact of the virus has been felt in this country compared to similar advanced economies. But how does Canada compare to the rest of the world? The Macdonald-Laurier Institute launched the COVID Misery Index this week and is based on data analysis conducted by Richard Audas, the lead methodologist on the Misery Index. To discuss this, Audas joined communications officer Ai-Men Lau to discuss how Canada’s performance has been compared to the rest of the world on the COVID Misery Index. The two examine the measures Audas used in developing the Index, how countries responded, and where we stand now.

The world has followed closely the attempted assassination via poisoning, recent arrest, and now conviction of Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny. With thousands of Russian citizens having taken to the streets to protest the corrupt and authoritarian rule of President Vladimir Putin, many have asked whether countries like Canada will do anything in response to Russia’s brazen attempts to target, kill, or otherwise stifle the voices of Russian pro-democracy figures. To discuss these recent events and what the world ought to consider doing, MLI Senior Fellow Marcus Kolga spoke with Vladimir Ashurkov, the Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation and a close colleague of Alexei Navalny. The two examine how measures like Magnitsky Sanctions could be used to hold corrupt and abusive officials in Russia (and beyond) to account. This episode of Pod Bless Canada is a joint podcast between the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, the University of Toronto’s Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasi

Spanning from the West coast of the Americas to the East shores of Africa, the Indo-Pacific region contains four of the world’s five largest economies and accounts for over half of global GDP. Of those economies, few are as large and share as many values as Japan. Japan and Canada continue to share many interests in the region, and both leaders recently reiterated their shared vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. To better understand the leadership role that Japan plays in the region, MLI Senior Fellow and Director of the Institute’s Indo-Pacific Program, Jonathan Berkshire Miller, spoke with Tomoaki Ishigaki who serves as Director of the Economic Policy Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. During their conversation, Miller and Ishigaki examine the economic challenges posed for the region due to COVID-19, Japan’s involvement in international trade, the role of multilateral institutions, and Japan’s vision for the Indo-Pacific.

In an effort to improve Canada’s approach to the Indo-Pacific region, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute has launched a dedicated “Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative.” To discuss this important new project, MLI Communications Manager Brett Byers was joined by Senior Fellow and Director of MLI’s Indo-Pacific Program, Jonathan Berkshire Miller. Miller and Byers examine the challenges and opportunities in the region - ranging from security, to trade, to multilateral cooperation, and more - as well as the role that Canada can play. They outline the importance of Canada embracing its status as an Indo-Pacific nation, urging policy-makers to develop a clear-eyed view of Canada's priorities in the region.

In the latest episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Senior Fellow and Foreign Policy Program Director Shuvaloy Majumdar is joined by Blair Gibbs, former advisor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to discuss the future of Brexit.

In the latest episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Senior Fellow Balkan Devlen is joined by fellow MLI Senior Fellow Marcus Kolga and Elisabeth Braw, Visiting Fellow at the American Entreprise Institute, to discuss countering information warfare from hostile foreign states with a resilient society.

This episode of Pod Bless Canada continues our ongoing series that examines Indigenous prosperity at the crossroads. Particularly, MLI is seeking to amplify the voices of Indigenous leaders and entrepreneurs who are on the frontline of economic reconciliation, often by way of securing meaningful partnerships for their communities in the natural resource economy. To that end, MLI Munk Senior Fellow Ken Coates spoke with Karen Ogen-Toews, the CEO of the First Nations LNG Alliance. Previously, she served as elected Chief of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation for six years, and is currently an elected council member for that nation. Coates and Ogen-Toews discuss the issues at play within First Nations as often divided communities seek to responsibly engage in the energy economy.

In this episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Munk Senior Fellow Ken Coates was joined by and JP Gladu, one of Canada’s foremost Indigenous entrepreneurs. Coates and Gladu cover a wide range of issues, particularly looking at how new, meaningful partnerships with Indigenous people in the natural resource sector serve as the frontline of economic reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples. This is the first entry in a series on this important subject.

In the latest episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Senior Fellow Balkan Devlen is joined by Dimitrios Triantaphyllou, the Director of the Centre for International and European Studies. Devlen and Triantaphyllou discuss the tensions between Greece and Turkey which has been exacerbated by the global pandemic . Some are worried there may be a military conflict within the region. Sharing personal anecdotes to illustrate the geopolitics of the two countries, Triantaphyllou  also makes the case for why Canada should pay attention to this issue as we move forward.

This episode of Pod Bless Canada features a conversation between MLI’s communication officer Ai-Men Lau and Chemi Lhamo. Lhamo, an outspoken Tibetan activist and former president of the University of Toronto Scarborough student president, found herself in the middle of a political firestorm. But it wasn't the usual dirty politics that can accompany of student government; rather, Lhamo's social media was quickly flooded with threatening comments from Chinese international students and petitions began circulating calling for Lhamo to step down. Lhamo and Lau discuss the intimidation and harassment Lhamo faced during her tenure as student president. They also delve into why the Canadian government should be paying attention the issue of foreign interference in our academic institutions.

This episode of Pod Bless Canada features a conversation between MLI’s communication officer Ai-Men Lau and Sherap Therchin. Therchin is the executive director of the Canada Tibet Committee, an organization that promotes human rights and democratic freedoms in Tibet. Therchin and Lau discuss the recent motion that was passed by the Special Committee on Canada-China relations which supported the resumption of dialogue between the representatives of Tibet and the Chinese government. Additionally, they also delve into the current situation in Tibet under Chinese rule as it pertains to freedom, human rights, and democracy.  Lau and Therchin also explore what Tibet means for Canada-China relations and how Canada should move forward.

This episode of Pod Bless Canada features a conversation between MLI’s Director for the Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad, Shuvaloy Majumdar, and Sarah Teich, a Canadian attorney and consultant who is the author of the Institute’s most recent paper titled “Not Immune – Exploring liability of authoritarian regimes for the COVID-19 pandemic and its cover-up.” Teich’s paper argues that hundreds of thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars in economic damages could have been prevented had countries like China and Iran not engaged in illegal cover-ups regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Luckily, Teich outlines that there are a wide array of domestic and international legal tools available to hold regimes like China and Iran to account. Majumdar and Teich explore the paper and what the next moves are for policy makers as they consider state liability for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like other authoritarian regimes, the Russian government has taken full advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to spread disinformation. However, while the crisis may serve as a convenient backdrop for Moscow’s campaigns of disinformation, this is only a small part of a much larger trend. To make sense of this situation, MLI Senior Fellow Marcus Kolga was joined by the Daily Beast’s Editor-at-Large, Michael Weiss. In addition to his role at the Daily Beast, Weiss is also writing a forthcoming book on the history of Russian military intelligence. Kolga and Weiss discuss the Kremlin’s long-running campaigns of disinformation, particularly in the context of the current US political climate. Rather than attempting to achieve a specific political goal, they explain that Russian disinformation serves to undermine social cohesion, catalyze chaos, and undermine democratic institutions.

In this latest episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Communications Officer Ai-Men Lau was joined by Alex Lee and Davin Wong from Alliance Hong Kong Canada (ACHK) to discuss the recent turbulent events in Hong Kong as a result of China's proposed the controversial National Security Law. Davin Wong is the Director of Youth Engagement and Policy Initiatives and Alex Lee is the Director of Strategy and Policy at ACHK. Lau, Lee, and Wong also discuss the overall response from Canada’s federal government, Canada-China relations, and the how Canada should approach future relations with China in the context of Hong Kong.

In this latest of episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Communciation Officer Ai-Men Lau was joined by Robert Falconer, a reserach associate at the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary. Falconer is a leading expert on refugee, immigration, and border policy with a specific focus on the inclusion of immigrants in the economy, healthcare system, and social life in Canada.  Lau and Falconer discuss the burdensome and challenging process immigrant doctors face in becoming accredited to practice medicine in Canada. As Canada fights the COVID-19 pandemic, many immigrant doctors are unable to join on the frontlines as they face a lengthy and expensive regulatory process. Lau and Falconer also discuss other professions that face similar challenges, why Canada has this accreditation process in place, and how this red tape status quo impacts Canadian healthcare.

In this latest of episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Senior Fellow Balkan Devlen was joined by David Manheim, a post-doc at the University of Haifa in the Health and Risk Communication Research Center. Manheim has done extensive work in terms of modeling risk across a wide variety of domains. Both he and Devlen are superforecasters with the Good Judgement project, currently forecasting global spread and impact of COVID-19. In their discussion, Devlen and Manheim reflect on existential risks, philosophy, pandemics with a particular eye toward the pandemic the world is currently experiencing: COVID-19. They reflect on the current actions taken by governments, how long the pandemic might last, and what advice they have for policy-makers navigating this challenging crisis.

In this latest episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Communications Officer Ai-Men Lau was joined by MLI Distinguished Fellow Dr. Jack Mintz to discuss the problems facing Canada's natural resource sector, particularly in Alberta. In their discussion, Dr. Mintz reflects on the turmoil facing the industry, particularly as a result of an ongoing oil price war that has arisen as a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic impacting oil demand. Lau and Dr. Mintz also discuss some of the longer-term structural issues facing the industry, tax policy in Alberta, and the federal government's approach to the economy and innovation more generally. **Note: this podcast was recorded before emergency measures associated with Canada's COVID-19 response were fully implemented. Stay tuned to Pod Bless Canada - we have expert reflections on the ongoing pandemic situation on route in the coming days.

In this latest episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Senior Fellow Charles Burton was joined by Brig. Gen. (Ret) Dr. Robert Spalding, the author of “Stealth War.” During their conversation, Gen. Spalding outlines how China has leveraged an increasingly globalized, interconnected, and digitally-mediated world to infiltrate and influence Western economies and societies. According to Gen. Spalding, linkages between democracies and authoritarian regimes like China have largely failed to change China for the better, and in fact risk undermining the integrity of our democratic systems. Gen. Spalding and Burton also examine contemporary issues in Canada-China relations, including China’s hostage diplomacy, the role of foreign influence agents, coercive trade tactics, and Canada’s pending decision regarding Huawei’s involvement in Canada’s 5G infrastructure.

In the latest episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Munk Senior Fellow Ken Coates comments on the ongoing protests and rail disruptions caused by opponents of BC's Coastal GasLink pipeline project. Moreover, given the withdrawal of the Teck Frontier oil sands mine project, Coates takes a critical look at the government's approach to the situation. Despite the popular narrative, Indigenous peoples across Canada are becoming increasingly involved as partners in natural resource development projects, including the Wet'suwet'en people through their elected chiefs. But despite these productive partnerships, projects are often disrupted, delayed, or cancelled. Coates discusses whether Canada's recent failures to develop energy projects speaks to larger, more concerning issues for Canada.

In the latest episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI Senior Fellow Charles Burton discusses the recent Taiwanese national elections, and what these important democratic contests mean for Taiwan, Canada, the region, and the world. Moreover, given the outbreak of the so-called "coronavirus," (COVID-19), Burton examines the political pressure that this crisis is putting on China. He discusses how Beijing's own actions have been making its situation more difficult in the long term.