Ontario's COVID vaccine passport system isn't all it's cracked up to be. In an open letter to Premier Doug Ford, Cardus contends the passport policy "intrudes deeply into personal autonomy, yet fails the balancing test. It is an unjustified, unnecessary, and harmful overreach, with serious short- and long-term consequences." Cardus Vice-President of External Affairs Brian Dijkema explains why on Hamilton's CHML Radio.

COVID vaccine passports have major flaws and Ontario’s government has better options available. That’s why think tank Cardus has sent Premier Ford an open letter, calling for him to immediately replace vaccine passports with effective, evidence-based policy.

Cardus Executive Vice-President Ray Pennings takes a glance at the dark and gloomy mood over much of North America and wonders, might there be more light making its way in than is meeting the eye?

Moral and ethical reflection, making normative sense of the world and striving to live accordingly, is an essential part of being human. Public leaders need to better grasp the role that conscience rights play in a free and democratic society. If they do not, freedom of conscience and the kind of society we cherish will eventually disappear.

When On-Site Magazine published an article on Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs), which also referred to some of our research, it generated a lot of feedback from readers in the construction industry. Chris Gardner, President of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, wrote in to plead for more complete coverage of the damage caused by the way British Columbia handles CBAs. And Gardner brings in other recent Cardus research to bolster his argument.  

Paul de Jong from the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada discusses Ontario's Bill 66, "Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act," and its importance to ensuring all construction workers have equal access to work through competition in the Toronto Star. Research from the prominent think tank Cardus, shows the Region of Waterloo, which adopted the legislation, is already benefiting from construction competition. More bids have lowered costs, saving the region $24 million so far. 

Federal political leaders fail to protect Canadians’ rights by staying out of Quebec’s secularism law, Bill 21, says Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, program director for religious freedom and faith community engagement at the faith-based think tank Cardus. “Religious freedom is not just any freedom,” Father Deacon Andrew Bennett told Canadian Catholic News. “It is one of the fundamental freedoms.” If politicians won’t speak out against the law during a federal election, he wonders when they will stand up for religious freedom.

Not all election promises are created equal when it comes to child care policies. In this episode of TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Armine Yalnizyan, Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers; and Andrea Mrozek, Senior Fellow with Cardus Family look at what each party has on offer and evaluate their feasibility.  A recording of this debate can be viewed at this link.

As the federal election campaign reaches its final stretch, it’s increasingly clear, based on a combination of public polling and how the party leaders have allocated their own time, resources, and attention, that housing, health care, and childcare all rank near the top of the public policy agenda.  Although these three policy issues may seem quite different, they share one major commonality: they’re all cases of a persistent supply-demand gap that’s leading to shortages and in turn driving up prices or producing long wait lists, write Brian Dijkema, Sean Speer, and Aaron Wudrick.