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    Canadian Political Science Association
    2020 Annual Conference Programme

    Confronting Political Divides
    Hosted at Western University
    Tuesday, June 2 to Thursday, June 4, 2020
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    Presidential Address:
    Barbara Arneil, CPSA President

    Origins:
    Colonies and Statistics

    Location:
    Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | 05:00pm to 06:00pm
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    KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
    Ayelet Shachar
    The Shifting Border:
    Legal Cartographies of Migration
    and Mobility

    Location:
    June 04, 2020 | 01:30 to 03:00 pm
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    Keynote Speaker: Marc Hetherington
    Why Modern Elections
    Feel Like a Matter of
    Life and Death

    Location:
    Wednesday, June 3, 2020 | 03:45pm to 05:15pm
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    Plenary Panel
    Indigenous Politics and
    the Problem of Canadian
    Political Science

    Location: Arts & Humanities Building - AHB 1R40
    Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | 10:30am to 12:00pm

CPSA/CAPPA section on Public Administration



K01 - Workshop 10: From Divides to Intersections: Transforming Canadian Public Administration

Date: Jun 2 | Time: 08:45am to 10:15am | Location:


Session Abstract: This mult-paper panel considers how an intersectional approach can transform the study of public administration in Canada. Papers examine the promise and challenges of equity lenses and impact assessments from the perspective of gender, disability, indigeneity, and language.


Leaders and Laggards: Canadian Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Multiscalar Context: Francesca Scala (Concordia University), Stephanie Paterson (Concordia University)
Abstract: The Canadian approach to gender mainstreaming, Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), has been the government’s primary gender equality instrument since signing the Beijing Declaration in 1995, and serves as a central pillar to the Trudeau Liberal’s ‘Feminist Government’. Recently extended across the whole of government, including budgeting, trade, and international development assistance, GBA+ requires analysts to apply a gender/intersectional lens to all policies and programs at all stages of the policy process to identify and mitigate disparate impacts. Yet, within the federal government and across provinces, the practice of GBA+ varies, as does its influence in policy development. In this paper, we compare GBA+ structures in the federal government and four provinces, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. Drawing on Canadian and comparative public administration scholarship, we interrogate the degree to which the adoption of GBA+ has been successful across contexts, and seek to identify enabling and constraining factors that contribute to or hinder its success. In so doing, we discuss the following: the personnel tasked with ‘doing GBA+”; the structures of the bureaucracy; and capacity for policy work.


Disabling Resources: The Missing Disability Lens in Impact Assessment : Susan Manning (Dalhousie University)
Abstract: People with disabilities experience disproportionately negative impacts when resource extraction projects are situated near their communities (Manning et al. 2016; Stienstra et al. 2019), however their experiences are rarely considered in the impact assessment process for proposed projects. As impact assessment is the primary mechanism through which potential socio-economic impacts associated with proposed projects are identified and the worst negative impacts are mitigated, the absence of a disability lens means that people will disabilities will likely continue to experience far more costs than benefits when resource projects are situated near their communities. This paper shares the results of a comparative study of impact assessment policy and practice in Northern Canada. It takes a critical policy studies approach, informed by theories of intersectionality and social justice, to exploring the place of disability in resource extraction decision-making and governance. The paper identifies a set of opportunities that exist within the policy landscape to insert the voices and experiences of people with disabilities into the assessment process for major mines and hydroelectric dams. While there are many opportunities that could be harnessed, significant procedural and structural limitations have thus far resulted in the experiences and concerns of people with disabilities remaining largely invisible in resource extraction. Changes are needed to make impact assessment processes more accessible to people with disabilities and more inclusive of their unique experiences.


Indigenizing Policy Considerations to be Meaningful to Indigenous Concerns: Malcolm Saulis (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Abstract: The paper considers three key notions: Indigenous: “The way we were before the others came” (Wilson). The important aspect of this definition is that it does not diminish the nature of the other group it simply offers the right for the original people who were here to be fully themselves. It does not get stuck in the debate about colonialism but rather it nurtures the value of the original peoples. Indigeneity: The expression of Indigenous people’s full nature including; their relationship to the Creator, the Universe, to the Ancestors and the wisdom, guidance, and medicine offered by this connection. Indigeneity is the essence of identity and the value you have for yourself and what you have inherited and how you live it in your life today. Indigegogy is the process of knowledge transfer, rooted in the Traditions of Indigenous people. It is a means of transferring knowledge that is built upon the inherent capacity of the person to be valued while learning. Knowledge is wholistic in nature and therefore learning affects the person wholistically: mentally-spiritually-emotionally-physically. The policy maker and the Indigenous people are of equal value in the educational process; the Indigenous people will know as much as the policy maker at the end of the process. The knowledge transferred becomes the responsibility of the person and with the relationship that emerges between teacher and the person they will help each other to continue to carry the knowledge. The community has a great responsibility to embrace policy making as a vision.


Under the Lens of Gender-Based Analysis +: What is the Place of Official Languages in Canada?: Isabelle Caron (Dalhousie University)
Abstract: Introduced by the federal government in 1995, Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) is an analytical process used to assess how diverse groups experience policies. Since 2016, the federal government has worked to increase awareness amongst federal public servants of the use of GBA+, including providing an online training. GBA+ is not limited to gender analysis. As the government of Canada’s website indicates, “our experiences are affected by intersecting parts of our identity, the context we are in and our lived realities”. This means that we all carry multiple identity factors defining who we are. Thus, under the federal perspective, the list of identity factors that should be taken into account when developing public policies includes: sex, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, geography, culture, income, sexual orientation, education. Language is never identified as an identity factor affecting who individuals are. Yet, research has shown that language is an important identity factor that impacts how individuals experience policies and programs. This research looks at parliamentary committees’ discussions related to public policy outcomes to determine the place of the language issues.




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