School of Public Policy and Administration

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Open Access
The Accessibility of Elections to Canadians with Cognitive Disabilities
(2020-09) Lai, Jennifer; Spotton Visano, Brenda
It is enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that all Canadian citizens are guaranteed the right to vote. This research paper explores whether persons with cognitive disabilities are able to exercise this right based on the accessibility provisions provided for in Canadian electoral law. A mixed methodology approach was used to investigate this topic, where qualitative interviews with persons with cognitive disabilities from countries and regions with similar social and policy contexts to Canada’s were used to identify facilitators and barriers to voting. Canada’s 14 different electoral acts were ranked based on the number of accessibility provisions they possessed that could facilitate voting. Ontario was identified as the jurisdiction with the most provisions that could facilitate voting in persons with cognitive disabilities. Trends in the secondary sourced data also revealed that a lack of electoral knowledge and a lack of social support were the most significant barriers to voting for persons with cognitive disabilities. A supportive social network was unanimously identified in the secondary data as a significant facilitator to voting. In fact, it was identified in the secondary data sources that persons with cognitive disabilities that did not have a supportive social network were unable to use the existing accessibility provisions in their region. This finding represents the limitations of Canada’s current accessibility provisions in their ability to facilitate voting for persons with cognitive disabilities. None of Canada’s provisions mandate that social service workers or election officials ensure that persons with cognitive disabilities receive the support they need to understand the electoral process prior to election day. This research paper makes the recommendation that such policy provisions are implemented in Canadian electoral law in order to increase the accessibility of elections to Canadians with cognitive disabilities.
Open Access
Asylum Law in North America
(Springer, 2022-02-16) Soennecken, Dagmar
Canada and the United States are both international leaders in the admission of refugees. The chapter first discusses and compares the domestic asylum determination system in Canada with that of the United States, followed by an overview of their respective refugee resettlement programs overseas, which largely take place outside of the rule of law. The Canadian section includes an overview of the 2002 Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), which remains in effect but has twice been challenged on constitutional grounds thus far. The chapter makes reference to the tension between domestic constitutional norms, the rights of refugees in international law (Hathaway, The rights of refugees under international Law, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021), and the growing preference of both Canada and the United States to treat refugees as “migrant[s] who the government may have reason to select” (Galloway Rights and the re-identified refugee: An analysis of recent shifts in Canadian law. In Kneebone S, Stevens D, Baldassar L (eds) Refugee protection and the role of Law: conflicting identities. Routledge, London and New York, 2014, 38) by securitizing asylum and by deterritorializing their borders throughout. It shows that this preference is at least in part anchored in a much older tradition of admitting refugees via discretionary humanitarian admission schemes, shielded from judicial oversight.
Open Access
Bursting the Ottawa bubble: Government Dispersal & Localization in the Context of a Diversity Strategy
(2022-07) Holmes Weier, Jennifer
The Canadian Public Service envisions a future where they are an inclusive institution where all can belong, powered by a diverse workforce that is representative and reflective of Canada. I was curious about how this commitment to reflect and represent Canada could be achieved when much of the policy workforce is assigned to the National Capital Region (HR Datahub, 2021). Could greater government dispersal and localization foster a more diverse policy workforce? To explore this question, a research project was designed that would a) review and synthesize the relevant literature, b) conduct background research on relevant legislation, policy, and data, and c) conduct a micro case study of the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and lived experiences of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) policy leaders on both diversity and the role of geography in diversity. The review of the evidence suggests that greater dispersal of federal policy jobs to communities across Canada could foster a more representative workforce. This finding comes with a caution that equity-conscious hiring and workplace locational flexibility alone does not create an inclusive work environment. Leaders must also be ready to centre diversity and inclusion in their approach to leadership and have the personal and professional tools to do so. Interviews with ESDC leaders, as a window into the leadership of Canada’s public service, reveals more support and intentionality is needed in this regard. To remove geographic restrictions for diversity purposes with a meaningful inclusion strategy behind it could act as a catalyst for transformation toward the diversity and inclusion vision.
Open Access
Canadian Immigration: The intersection of public perception and Canada’s future
(2024-01-15) Ramaj, Mirusha; Strachan, Kurt
The purpose of this paper is to examine the downturn in public perception about Canada’s immigration policy and highlight policy adjustments to maintain economic growth while emphasizing the importance of integrating manageable levels of non-permanent residents (NPRs) into the socio-economic landscape. The current immigration policy is compromised by comprehensive population growth and the impact of significant numbers of NRPs, which have overextended segments of the economy and decreased GDP per capita. By addressing these issues, public reticence can be shifted, through forward-thinking policy designed to reduce numbers and sustain necessary immigration, to maintain a GDP growth of 1.5 – 1.7%.
Open Access
Diversity training in the workplace: Assessing effectiveness and outcomes
(2021-04) Kovacs, Gyula; Couto, Naomi
Purpose: This paper reviews the existing literature regarding the effectiveness of diversity training within organizations and examines the empirical evidence and theoretical foundations that support claims that such initiatives can help reduce racist attitudes and behaviours. Methodology: The author conducted a thorough examination of relevant research reported in academic and practitioner publications. Findings: On balance, the evidence supports the contention that diversity training can lead to positive outcomes, but results vary depending on (i) the culture of an organization; (ii) the quality of its leadership; and (iii) the type of diversity training that is offered. Implications: Findings support the assertion that training alone will not eliminate racist attitudes and behaviours in the workplace and must be supported by additional measures to affect positive change. The author concludes with recommendations in this regard. Limitations: The author of this paper did not conduct any independent empirical research. Findings are based on studies conducted by others that likely contain their own limitations and weaknesses, including small sample sizes, inadequate use of diversity training metrics, and an over-reliance on self-reported evaluations (Alhejji et al., 2016, p. 140).
Open Access
An Embedded Systems Perspective in Conceptualizing Canada’s Healthcare Sustainability
(MDPI, 2019) Tsasis, Peter; Agrawal, Nirupama; Guriel, Natalie
Healthcare sustainability has been dominated by a strong fiscal orientation. In an era of budget cuts and staff reductions, the financial challenges in Canadian healthcare are immediate and must be addressed. However, an independent focus on financial viability is too narrow a framing; too limited to allow for the kind of creative, novel, and even radical thinking that is required to fundamentally alter the current course of healthcare in Canada and internationally. Prospects for solving the current financial challenges are likely to be greatly enhanced if we simultaneously account for the broad and interrelated dimensions of sustainability. What would a healthcare system look like if sustainability were adopted as the focal and principal goal? And what might a “deep” sustainability orientation imply for how we think about and manage healthcare systems? This analysis is informed by the notion that healthcare systems are fully contained within the societal system, which is itself fully contained within the broader ecological system. This model, which foregrounds nature as the most fundamental and important system, has both greater ecological validity and particular relevance to the healthcare context given the interdependence between the health of natural systems and the health of humans. Our understanding of nature in relation to health may be key to solving or at least reducing the economic burden of healthcare. A multidimensional systems orientation thus has the potential to unveil new modes of thinking that highlight intersectoral relations, communications, collaboration, and cross-boundary learning for improved health and wellbeing, healthcare performance, and sustainability.
Open Access
Examining Housing Insecurity Among Previously Incarcerated Individuals
(2020-04-27) Jabson, Joana; Klassen, Thomas
The purpose of this research aimed to understand the housing barriers among previously incarcerated individuals in Ontario. The research design was based on a qualitative approach, using a total of 9 key informant interviews to analyze the impact of incarceration in securing and maintaining housing. Participants from the study included Directors, Managers, Policy Analysts/Advisors, Probation & Parole Officers, researchers, clinicians, front-line staff at community organizations such as the John Howard Society of Ontario, Elizabeth Fry Society, Centre of Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH), Wellesley Institute, Strategic Initiatives at Strata Health and the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General. The findings indicate that the barriers to housing includes: (1) lack of collaboration between the provincial, municipal and local community organizations, (2) inadequate assessments to identify individualized needs, (3) insufficient funding to provide for housing initiatives and services, (4) lack of affordable housing, (5) lack of social housing available and (6) stigma associated being discharged with a “criminal record.” The study findings confirm the intersecting factors such as employment, education, financial assistance, social networks, mental health and substance use needs in attaining housing. This research indicates a required commitment and coordinated response across sectors, levels of government and the community to successfully help individuals reintegrate into society.
Open Access
Extending Hospitality? History, Courts and the Executive
(Studies in Law, Politics and Society, 2013) Soennecken, Dagmar
While many consider court involvement in immigration matters a given, in liberal nation-states, there is actually a substantial degree of variation. This chapter revisits two “critical junctures” in the early immigration histories of Canada and Germany to show that institutions and policy legacies are not just historical backdrop, but actually shaped the strategies of political actors, subsequent institutional configurations, and policy options for long periods of time, thereby revealing unintended consequences, as well as alternative paths that the involvement of the courts (and other actors) could have taken.
Open Access
From Blue to Green : A Case Study of a Non-Police Crisis Intervention Program in Toronto
(2023-05-22) Khuc, Nicole
For many years, the police have become the default first responder to mental health crisis calls in Canada and many other jurisdictions around the world. Phrases such as“street-corner psychiatrist” or “the gatekeeper of the mental health care system” are often used to describe the overreliance on police in responding to mental health crises. The increasing interactions between police and person with mental illnesses (“PMIs”) and the nature of these interactions in recent years have called into question the appropriateness of the role of police in responding to mental health-related service calls. In a recent effort to decrease police involvement in mental health crises, the City of Toronto piloted a non-police, community-led crisis intervention program called the Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS) in 2021. This exploratory qualitative study aims to capture the perspectives of policy and frontline staff from the TCCS program to answer the question: “What are the key characteristics of a crisis intervention program to ensure effective responses to people in mental health crises?” Findings from this study suggest that an effective crisis intervention service should have the following characteristics: timely and accessibility of service, responding without law enforcement accompaniment, connecting PMIs to facility-based care as needed through warm hand-offs, empowering PMIs to make their own choices by taking a client-centred approach, building community trust and rapport through engagement and psychoeducation, and providing flexible services to meet the unique needs of PMIs. Crisis intervention provides an opportunity to positively effect change at a turning point in an individual life to help decrease the likelihood of such behaviour in the future. The success of a crisis intervention program is only as great as the resources behind it. Inter-governmental collaboration and investment in community-based resources, including shelter beds, housing, stabilization centers, and support to front-line staff are crucial to ensure a consistent continuum of care for PMIs.
Open Access
Germany and the Janus Face of Immigration Federalism: Devolution vs. Centralization
(Springer, 2014-03) Soennecken, Dagmar
What challenges and opportunities has federalism held for countries like Germany, one of Europe’s most ‘reluctant’ states of immigration? Although the formal, constitutional division of powers between the German central government (Bund) and the federal states (Länder) has certainly shaped Germany’s response to immigration and integration, federalism is only one aspect of a broader, ‘semisovereign’ model of governance that has dominated German state-society relations for decades (Katzenstein 1987). This model sees a range of decentralized state actors, among them constantly negotiating with a set of highly centralized societal (or “parapublic”) organizations, such as churches, labour and employer associations, leading to at best incremental policy change over the years. While some observers argue that this model will endure and likely also impair Germany’s ability to successfully navigate future immigration and integration challenges (Green and Paterson 2005), others argue that German political actors have been quite successful all along in shifting “venues” to suit their policy preferences, be that “up” (to the intergovernmental/EU level), “down” (to the local level) or “out” (to non-state actors) (Guiraudon and Lahav 2000). The chapter will argue that Germany’s particular version of immigration federalism has facilitated both incrementalism and venue shifting.
Open Access
The Growing Influence of the Courts over the Fate of Refugees
(Review of European and Russian Affairs, 2008) Soennecken, Dagmar
A number of migration scholars suggest that domestic courts have become the key protective institution for refugees. How can we explain this claim? One prominent explanation identifies group litigation as the key source of the increasing influence of the courts. How well does this explanation travel empirically? The article evaluates this explanation by examining the puzzling behaviour of German refugee NGOs. They have not entered the legal arena directly (either as parties or as interveners), nor have they concentrated on developing extensive litigation campaigns. Still, they are remarkably ‘judicialized’: their frequent engagement with the law in other respects has heightened their legal consciousness. Why have German refugee NGOs made such different choices than their North American counterparts and what do these choices tell us about the expanding influence of the courts over the fate of refugees in Germany and North America? To make sense of the different choices that these organizations have made, we need to understand the role that institutional norms and procedures, in particular policy legacies, have played in directing the behaviour and identity of these groups. For a number of reasons, German refugee NGOs historically have been discouraged from directly accessing the courts in favour of indirect participation. Since Canadian and American refugee organizations follow a pattern closer to the expectations of the (largely North American) literature on the subject, we need to be more careful in thinking through our presuppositions when constructing a theory of the worldwide expansion of judicial power.
Open Access
The Impact Assessment Act, 2019, Climate Change, and Political Priorities in Canada
(2020-04) Offenheim, Alyssa; Spotton Visano, Brenda
The Impact Assessment Act, 2019 was presented as establishing stronger rules to protect the country’s environment and renewing public trust in the decision-making about resource development. The purpose of this study is to constructively assess the extent to which the Act can be used to support Canada’s climate change commitments. Through political analysis, this study finds that as a discretion-based tool, the Impact Assessment Act is designed to accommodate the longstanding economic vision of a Canada, with the attempts to accommodate environmental and social issues highly dependent on context and application. This research can contribute to understanding of the extent to which this tool aligns with Canada’s international commitment to addressing climate change, which can stimulate attention to whether this tool is appropriate in today’s context of growing environmental concern.
Open Access
The Managerialization of Refugee Determinations in Canada
(Droit et Société, 2013) Soennecken, Dagmar
Although refugees are protected by a myriad of legal norms, this article shows that the domestic process of determining who is awarded this status has become more and more managerialized, even in a country like Canada, which has generally been considered a leader among refugee-receiving countries. This privileging of efficiency-based standards has gradually sidelined an earlier push to judicialize refugee determination procedures to the extent that access to the courts for refugees more generally is now considered problematic and ultimately suspect. The article uses historic institutional tools to highlight the critical role that the external, political environment has played in gradually managerializing refugee determination procedures.
Open Access
Mobilizing European law
(Journal of European Public Policy, 2018) Conant, Lisa; Hofman, Andreas; Soennecken, Dagmar; Vanhala, Lisa
The literature on European legal mobilization asks why individuals, groups and companies go to court and explores the impact of litigation on policy, institutions and the balance of power among actors. Surveying the literature we find that legal mobilization efforts vary across policy areas and jurisdictions. This article introduces a three-level theoretical framework that organizes research on the causes of these variations: macro-level systemic factors that originate in Europe; meso-level factors that vary nationally; and micro-level factors that characterize the actors engaged in (or disengaged from) litigation. We argue that until we understand more about how and why different parties mobilize law, it is difficult to respond to normative questions about whether European legal mobilization is a positive or negative development for democracy and rights.
Open Access
Officers of the Assembly and the Ontario Legislature: Reconsidering the Relationship
(2020-07) McCauley, Jocelyn; Constantinou, Peter
Officers of Parliament, or as the are referred to in Ontario, "officers of the Assembly", have emerged within Westminster systems as a recognized tool for enhancing parliamentary oversight and increasing transparency in government. However, in Ontario, the absence of a clearly defined relationship with the provincial legislature has meant that certain officers of the Assembly have felt it necessary to "lobby" individual members and committees, as well as the media, in order to carry out their accountability and oversight functions. This lack of clarity places unnecessary stress on the relationship between independent officers, the Ontario Legislature, and the public sector, and can also negatively impact the public's perception of government overall. This paper looks specifically at the relationship between the Ontario Legislature and officers of the Assembly, in terms of their governance structures, their appearances in legislative committees, and references to their work in House and committee proceedings. It finds that reforms are needed in order to strengthen officers' relationships with the Legislature. Independent officers possess few powers of enforcement and as such, strong ties to the Assembly are necessary to ensure that recommended action is taken by legislators defend public trust and dollars.
Open Access
The Paradox of Docket Control: Empowering Judges, Frustrating Refugees
(Law & Policy, 2016-10) Soennecken, Dagmar
This article focuses on the gradual expansion of docket control mechanisms in refugee (or asylum) law proceedings in Germany. It shows that granting judges more and more control over their asylum dockets was a central policy tool repeatedly employed by German politicians over the decades in the hope that it would stem the flow of refugees into the courts and ultimately make it easier (and faster) to deport failed claimants. Politicians were much more willing to limit access to asylum appeals than to appeals in general administrative law, illustrating how the pressure to come up with solutions for the flood of asylum applications overcame established norms for maintaining equal access to the courts for all claimants. Surprisingly, the Constitutional Court remained largely unaffected by these efforts except for a paradigm shift that occurred with the amendment of the constitutional asylum provision in 1993.
Open Access
Patrolling the boundaries of belonging? Courts, law and citizenship
(Elgar, 2019) Conant, Lisa; Hofmann, Andreas; Soennecken, Dagmar; Vanhala, Lisa
This chapter explores how courts and law have contributed to the evolution of citizenship. Theoretically, it draws on Christian Joppke’s distinctions between citizenship as status, rights, and identity as a means to analyse different facets of belonging within political communities. Substantively, it emphasizes the United States (US) and European Union (EU) as historical projects where law and courts were particularly important in constructing national and supranational citizenship, respectively. It also examines tensions evident in postnational memberships, such as the de facto partial citizenship of unauthorized immigrants and exclusion of many refugees from any citizenship.
Open Access
Perspectives of Working Mothers in the Ontario Public Service on Hybrid Work Arrangements
(2023) De Marinis, Melodie
This exploratory qualitative study examines how hybrid work has impacted working mothers in the Ontario Public Service. Twenty-two participants with children between eighteen months and seventeen years participated in focus groups to understand their perspectives and experiences of the impact of hybrid work on their domestic and professional lives during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current time. The study's results confirm that the participants reported the impact depended on what phase of hybrid work was being discussed, with different challenges occurring earlier in the pandemic compared to the current time. In the present-day hybrid work arrangements, participants reported an overall positive impact from hybrid work in their domestic lives, including housework, childcare responsibilities, and self-care. The reported impact of hybrid work on the participants' professional lives was more nuanced; participants reported increased productivity and satisfaction levels working at home compared with earlier in the pandemic, while remote connection and communication with work colleagues and management remained an ongoing challenge. The perspectives on boundaries between domestic and professional life were divided between participants who appreciated the flexibility of extended hours while working remotely and others who were concerned about the meshing of work and professional life. This small-scale study provides avenues for future larger-scale research, which can help inform the hybrid work policy for the Ontario Public Service and other public service areas moving forward.
Open Access
Public Funding of Ontario Catholic Schools: To Caesar What is Caesar's and to God What is God's
(2020-07) Bustos, Andres Urrutia; Karimi, Sirvan; Ingram, Susan
Section 93 of the Constitution Act 1867, the linchpin of the public funding of Catholic schools, conferred the right to public funding to Catholic schools (and Protestant schools) to protect religious minorities and to secure the Confederation. Since then, Catholic schools in Ontario have enjoyed this exclusive privilege despite the fact that Catholics are not a minority anymore and that Canada has evolved toward a secular, multicultural, and human rights based society. Section 93 has perpetuated this discriminatory practice by a loophole that pits Section 15 against Section 93 of the constitution. Contrary to popular belief, the abrogation of Section 93 can be accomplished through a straightforward legislative enactment, which has not been carried out due to a combination of political and societal factors, rather than legal and constitutional obstacles. It is very difficult to expect that any politician in Ontario will advance a proposal to abrogate Section 93 when a substantial part of Ontario’s population still supports Catholic schools or their public funding; this is despite of polls showing that rejection for continued public funding is marginally superior to its support and despite the difference in academic performance between secular and Catholic schools being less than 7%. Therefore, the proposed “ecumenical” public schools herein may serve as a temporary compromise or as a first step to the complete secularization of Ontario’s education system.
Open Access
Shifting Back and Up: The European Turn in Canadian Refugee Policy
(Comparative Migration Studies, 2014) Soennecken, Dagmar
During the last decade, Canada’s immigration and citizenship policies have been radically transformed. Hardly any aspect has been left untouched. That humanitarian migration has also been restricted and transformed has generally been linked to the worldwide “securitization” of migration. This paper argues that the timing and character of a number of key changes also represent a European turn of Canada’s refugee policy, which has seen Canada change from a policy innovator and humanitarian leader to a student, follower and adaptor of a key set of restrictionist asylum policies practiced in Europe.