The Law Society of Ontario is heading into an April election where its controversial “statement of principles” about diversity and inclusion is front and centre. As the ideological conflict heats up, Brian Dijkema, vice president of external affairs at Cardus, notes, "One of the gifts of democracy is that you should not actually have to have a political opinion all the time."

"The troubles we’re seeing are only the latest symptoms of the [long-term care] staffing shortage, created by a nightmarish cocktail of mutually reinforcing problems that the think tank Cardus has outlined before," write Brian Dijkema, vice-president of external affairs at Cardus, and Johanna Lewis, a public policy researcher.

"This research suggests that Canadian fertility isn’t low just due to various direct financial barriers," writes Lyman Stone, a demographer and Cardus senior fellow. "It’s low because the entire modern life sequence in industrialized countries is becoming hostile to the biological timeline of fertility."

Nearly half of women in Canada have fewer children than they want, writes Andrea Mrozek, a Cardus senior fellow. That's one of the key findings in a recent Cardus report that surveyed 2,700 women in Canada on fertility issues. She argues it would be a win just to acknowledge that Canadian women would like to have more children than they do.  

When it comes to child care, one size does not fit all. As Cardus's Renze Nauta explains on AM640 in Toronto, that's why the federal-provincial $10-a-day child care deal doesn't help Canada's working class families.

"The problem is that the kind of child care that gets federal subsidies often doesn’t fit the lives of working-class families," argue Cardus's Renze Nauta, Peter Jon Mitchell, and Andrea Mrozek in this opinion piece. They write that the federal government ought to be "giving parents flexibility to choose the kind of child care that works for them."

Why do Canadian women have fewer children than they want? “Some of the most determinative factors for fertility are about culture," Lyman Stone, a demographer and Cardus senior fellow, tells The Hub. "And what they really relate to is the extent to which parents experience societal support for their choice.”

As Scottish leaders consider an Assisted Dying Bill, Dr. Leonie Herx, a palliative care specialist and Cardus senior fellow, has a warning for them: Don't follow Canada's example. Herx says it's become "very difficult in palliative care to do our work when medically assisted dying becomes a default solution for some patients" in Canada.

"We need to improve medical education for doctors about palliative care," Rebecca Vachon, program director for Cardus Health, tells the Sam Laprade Show. Rebecca argues the federal government's pause on expanding medically assisted suicide is a chance to refocus priorities on issues that have been left behind.