Macdonald-Laurier Institute

MLI is celebrating fifteen years of fighting for a better Canada!🎂 As trust in media, the universities, and government plummeted we established ourselves as an independent, non-partisan, and serious voice. Join us⬇️ macdonaldlaurier.ca/fifteenth-anni…

“Ending a life is irreversible. Health systems are imperfect. Assessments can be rushed. Bias exists especially against those who are elderly and disabled. When these realities intersect with a legal pathway to death, safeguards must be more than aspirational,” writes MLI Senior Fellow @rljcoelho in @nationalpost. Read here⬇️

MLI, alongside @PerthUSAsia, was proud to convene two days of high-level discussions on the potential for a Canada-Australia resource alliance! A resource alliance could serve 🇦🇺 and 🇨🇦's core national interests by reducing exposure to coercion and volatility. @ExnerPirot

“Kaveh Shahrooz, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, has warned that Canada is already seen as a safe haven for regime officials — who might try emigrating to Canada if the Islamic Republic appears to be near collapse.” @kshahrooz referenced in @CanadianPress story on Iranian officials who have sought haven in Canada. Read here⬇️ thecanadianpressnews.ca/politics/canad…

“Even claiming that Canada has a single national interest has often triggered a cascade of questions. Who is a part of it and who is not? Does it conflict with the special claims of Quebecers? What about Aboriginal rights? Can we even speak of a single Canadian culture? Shouldn’t we instead celebrate diversity as our culture?”—Christopher Dummit MLI Senior Fellow Christopher Dummit writes about the competing interests holding Canadian nationalism back. Read here⬇️

Read the full paper here: macdonaldlaurier.ca/discrimination…

Across the country, law and medical schools have adopted identity-based admissions criteria in the name of equity. But very little data has been available on how those policies work. New research from MLI is changing that. In a new paper on DEI and admissions in Canadian law and medical schools, researcher David Wand requested admissions data from 18 law schools and 14 medical schools. Only six law schools and eight medical schools agreed to share their data. Wand then compared applicants’ standardized test scores – such as the LSAT and MCAT – against actual admissions outcomes. To discuss his findings, Wand joins Inside Policy Talks. On the podcast, he tells Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at MLI, that race is a key factor in the admissions process, raising, he argues, serious questions about meritocracy. Based on these findings, he argues there is a better way forward and calls on provincial governments to ban race from the admissions process. “The ultimate goal here is to ban it and follow the lead of other multiracial democratic countries that also are concerned about historical disadvantages experienced by certain racial groups,” says Wand. He points to Scandinavian countries as an alternative model, noting that they do not consider race in admissions but instead support disadvantaged students earlier in the process through programs aimed at improving academic performance. Watch the full episode: youtube.com/watch?v=s3hM06…

“A visit to Israel by our prime minister would help quell this growing isolation of the Canadian Jewish community. It would also be good for Canada, too, as Israel offers technologies and defence capability that we sorely need from an important ally,” writes MLI Distinguished Fellow @jackmintz. Read here⬇️

“Beijing’s efforts to influence Canadian politics are systematic, sustained, and structurally embedded in ways that extend well beyond individual incidents,” writes W.A. Rivera on why Canada needs a RICO-style law to combat foreign-interference networks for MLI Inside Policy. Read here⬇️

Read Press release here⬇️ alberta.ca/release.cfm?xI…

“When the outcome is death, safeguards must be clear, enforceable and rigorously upheld. This bill helps ensure that care comes first.”—@rljcoelho MLI Senior Fellow Dr. Ramona Coelho spoke yesterday at the Alberta government’s (@YourAlberta @ABDanielleSmith) press conference on the Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act.

“The geopolitical context gives it strategic meaning beyond anything that hate crime law was designed to address. To keep prosecuting these acts as though they are simply the worst version of a lesser offence is to misread what is happening, and to respond with less than the circumstances demand,” write @sherylsap and Ches W. Parsons. Read here⬇️

“The Cuban people are living under one of the world’s oldest and most repressive dictatorships. Canada must stop pretending their government is something it is not,” write Michael Lima, Isabelle Terranova and Sarah Teich. Read here⬇️

“A country where Jews once came for shelter is now one where they need to hide,” writes @DrCaseyBabb, Director of the Promised Land project at MLI in @TheFP. Read here⬇️