Interested in what is currently studied in Canada? Want to know more about key topics and under-explored realities? Join us for a monthly online seminar, starting in October 2025 until April 2026.
Topics Include:
- Black Canadian labour migration
- Disability arts and culture
- Environmental policy
- Immigration policy
- Trust and political leadership in Canada
And more to be announced.
WIHIC Events Calendar
Canada’s Democratic Trajectory in an Age of Uncertainty: What is the Future of Political Leadership?
A 'What is Happening in Canada?' Webinar
With Dr. Cristine de Clercy, Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership, Trent University
October 8, 2025 | 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Abstract
There is much evidence we are in a new era that challenges democratic leaders as never before. AI, foreign interference, political extremism, changing trade relationships and outdated institutional norms present a complicated context for citizens and their leaders. How can we adapt to this uncertain new reality? What tools and abilities do today’s decision-makers and – more importantly – the next generation of leaders need to ensure Canada successfully navigates such difficulties? How might the new Canadian Jarislowsky Network of Chairs in Trust and Political Leadership contribute key resources? Join us for a talk by Trent University’s Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership, Dr. Cristine de Clercy, about Canada’s democratic trajectory and the future of political leadership. This talk will be moderated by Dr. Heather Nicol, Director of the School for the Study of Canada and a Professor of Geography in the School of the Environment at Trent University.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Cristine de Clercy is Trent University's inaugural Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership and Professor of Political Studies. Her work focuses on how political leaders mobilize support in mass democracies, the role of character in leadership, and populism's effects on democratic leadership. Her most recent work is an edited thematic collection of new research about "Ethics, Democracy and Political Leadership" published by the Politics and Governance journal in August 2025, open access here:https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/issue/view/425.
Canada Twixt the US and Europe: Climate Policy Choices and the Way Forward
A "What is Happening in Canada?" Event
With Dr. Debora L. VanNijnatten, Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
Thursday November 6, 2025 | 1:00 - 2:00 pm EST
Abstract
This lecture will examine the current moment in Canadian climate policy-making as the country faces difficult choices enroute to meeting its Net Zero targets, in a more uncertain continental and global context. On the one hand, Canada must respond to the climate policy retrenchment of its closest trade partner, the United States, with whom its economic prosperity is entwined. On the other, Canada is seeking deeper economic and policy alignment with the European Union, long a climate policy leader. Further, these conflicting policy impulses - to be a climate policy leader vs. abandoning Net Zero targets as unrealistic and incompatible with Canada's economic well-being - are mirrored within Canada and especially across provincial administrations. In trying to navigate different alliances and conflicting policy impulses, how can Canada maintain course and continue to pursue greenhouse gas reductions? This talk will be moderated by Kevin Spooner, Director, Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada (LCSC).
Speaker Biography
Debora L. VanNijnatten is Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is the editor/author of 6 books and has published more than 50 articles and book chapters - all in the area of environmental policy and governance. She has been writing on Canadian climate policy for 20 years, both in terms of mitigation efforts and transboundary cooperation with the U.S. Her current research in this area focuses on ‘Net Zero’ as a scientific concept, policy instrument and political target, and actively interrogates the utility of Net Zero in reaching our climate goals in Canada, North America and Europe.
On Disability Arts & Culture
A 'What is Happening in Canada?" Event
With Dr. Emilia Nielsen, Associate Professor, Health & Society, York University
Tuesday December 9, 2025 | 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
Disability arts and culture constitute a vibrant force in Canada with recent examples of this generativity emblematic of a commitment to make creative worlds for disability and disabled people—in the past, in the present and in the future. This presentation will be less of a lecture and more of an invitation to explore together the rich cultural landscape of disability arts and culture in Canada with specific attention paid to just a few of the great many artists, creators, and organizations at work today. It could be argued there is still much to do to reimagine the place of disability arts and culture within critical, interdisciplinary studies of Canada. As such, there are opportunities to envisage collaborative research projects that incorporate a critical disability studies framework when engaging with Canadian disability arts and culture.
This talk will be moderated by Jean Michel Montsion, Associate Professor in Canadian Studies at Glendon Campus (York University) and Director of the Robarts Centre.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Emilia Nielsen is an associate professor in the Health and Society program at York University. She is the author of two critically noted collections of poetry, Body Work and Surge Narrows, and her scholarly book, Disrupting Breast Cancer Narratives: Stories of Rage and Repair (University of Toronto Press, 2019), received the Elli Köngäs-Maranda Prize. Her most recent funded research explores experiential knowledge of chronic illness, hybrid forms of life-writing, and critical-creative approaches. She hosts and executive produces the podcast “On Being Ill”: Conversations on Creativity, Disability and Identity with support from the Creative Entanglement Collaboratory.
100 Years of Labour Migration and Race in Atlantic Canada
A "What is Happening in Canada?" Event
With Dr. Claudine Bonner, Associate Professor, Mount Allison University
Wednesday, January 28, 2026 | 10:00 am - 11:00 am EST | Register Here
This paper examines migrant worker experiences in Atlantic Canada and situates them within Canada’s national temporary labour regime. Drawing on the 2024 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative’s report, Falling Short: Troubles with the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Nova Scotia, as well as on national scholarship on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, it argues that Atlantic Canada exemplifies dominant regulatory logics relative to migrant labour. Here, despite smaller scale and lower visibility, migrant workers face employer-tied permits, employer-controlled housing, restricted mobility, and limited access to healthcare. The paper contrasts contemporary experiences with that of Caribbean industrial migration to Nova Scotia in the 1920s, highlighting how settlement has been systematically foreclosed, especially to those in low-wage sectors.
This talk will be moderated by Krista Johnston, Associate Professor in Feminist & Gender Studies and Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Claudine Bonner (she/her) is an Associate Professor of racial justice and African Diaspora migration in the Atlantic region. Her teaching focuses on issues of equity and racial justice. She served as the inaugural Vice Provost of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Acadia University.
Her forthcoming publication, The Black Press: A Shadowed Canadian Tradition, is a collection of essays co-edited with Drs. Nina Reid-Maroney and Boulou Ebanda de B bèri. This collection, spanning the period from the 1850s to the early twentieth century, is the first in the field to bring together original historical and Communication Studies research that position pioneering Canadian Black journalists as effective intellectual activists. Her current research explores early twentieth century African-Caribbean and Canadian migration networks, inserting Nova Scotia into the discussion as more than simply a point of transit as has often been suggested.
Stay Connected!
To register for the series, sign up here.
For any questions and concerns, reach out to robarts@yorku.ca.
This series is made possible by the participation of the Centre for Indigenous and Critical Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University, the Canadian Studies Network, the Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada, the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, and the School of Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University, University of British Columbia Canadian Studies, with the support of the International Council for Canadian Studies.