Tracey P. Lauriault, Associate Professor, Critical Media and Big Data, School of Journalism and Communication, 杏吧原创 University, has been appointed as a member of the Expert Panel on the State of Citizen Science in Canada at the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA).

Field Notes 
Jane Dickson, Law and Legal Studies

Jane Dickson鈥檚 work focuses on strengthening Indigenous access to justice through the development, training, and evaluation of Gladue reports and culturally informed sentencing practices.

Can you offer a 鈥渓ay鈥� description of your research topic? 

My鈥痳esearch area is Indigenous access to justice, most notably in the criminal justice sphere and with a focus on what are called the 鈥楪ladue principles鈥� across the criminal justice system and increasingly, into other areas of law as well. These principles require the courts to consider the unique background and circumstances of an Indigenous person and any alternatives to incarceration that are reasonable given the offence and degree of culpability of the offender.  

Ideally, this information is provided to the courts in the form of a Gladue report. I train people to write these reports and have completed several research projects on the impacts of those reports and the Gladue principles more generally; I have also evaluated some of the largest Gladue service providers in the country. 

What piqued your interest in this topic? 

鈥疢y research鈥痮riginally鈥痜ocused鈥痮n the reclamation of鈥疘ndigenous鈥痩aw and legal鈥痵tructures鈥痶hrough the revitalization and implementation of that law鈥痑nd鈥痵tructures鈥痺ithin鈥疐irst Nations.鈥� 

However, It quickly became apparent鈥痶hat outside governments were supportive of 鈥榬estorative justice projects鈥� but much less so of the reinstitution of traditional law. This led to me shift my attention to addressing inequities in the colonial system and to focus on Gladue, sentencing and pushing back on the mass incarceration of Indigenous people in Canada.鈥�

What question were you hoping to answer in your research? 

鈥疊roadly speaking, how鈥痗an we better respect and support Indigenous justice systems within鈥疘ndigenous鈥痭ations鈥痑nd鈥痬aximize鈥痑ccess鈥痶o justice for Indigenous citizens who鈥痓ecome鈥痠nvolved鈥痺ith鈥痶he colonial justice system?

What is something people would be surprised to learn? 

The Department of Law and鈥疞egal鈥疭tudies houses the Ottawa Pro Bono Gladue鈥疨roject, which I run with my former graduate student, Kerry MacDonell. We have a group of certified Gladue writers who volunteer to provide reports to Indigenous people in the Ottawa-Kingston area; we are now also supporting people across Canada, which is very exciting and keeps us very busy.鈥�

What鈥檚 the biggest misconception about your research area? 

The biggest misconception is that Gladue considerations are a 鈥榞et out of jail free card鈥� – since the advent of Gladue in 1999, rates of incarceration of Indigenous people have continued to climb. Since 2000/2001, the incarcerated Indigenous population has risen by 56.2% 

Any new projects that you鈥檙e excited about? 

I have a few very exciting projects on the horizon, but will just mention one, which is a research project to support鈥痶he鈥痙evelopment鈥痮f national standards for鈥疓ladue reports, Gladue writers and Gladue training. This is important to me as a Gladue writer, educator and ally of Indigenous people who understands the challenges of this work and the magnitude of task Gladue is intended to address.

What鈥檚 your favourite class to teach? 

That鈥檚 a tough question! I like teaching first year very much but am presently also enjoying teaching my fourth-year seminar, which exposes students to the research on Gladue and to those working with Gladue in the system. I am fortunate to have a number of amazing guest speakers, including the Chief of the Ottawa Police Service, Indigenous and non-Indigenous senior Judges and Justices of the Peace of the Ontario Court of Justice, Crown and defence counsel, Gladue writers, and the Director of Special Projects at the Office of the Federal Correctional Investigator. It is a great blend of theory and practice. The course has also opened up employment opportunities for some of my students and helped others to locate mentors and resources to assist them with careers in the law and legal services.鈥� 

杏吧原创 University researchers, Jennifer Evans, Elisabeth Gilmore, Carmen Robertson and Richard Yu have been named to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), honouring the significant impact they have made in their respective fields.

Mehdi Ammi investigates the long-term value of preventive public health spending, analyzing how smarter investments can save lives and improve population health.

Can you offer a 鈥渓ay鈥� description of your research topic? 

If only I had just one! I鈥檓 half-joking there, but I鈥檓 a curious person, and it seems that answering one research question tends to lead to more. There鈥檚 a bit of a sprawl of research interests. Still, my research falls within health economics, health policy, health services research, and public health. Overall, I want to understand how the characteristics of health and healthcare systems can be modified to balance comprehensive access, high quality, and low cost of care, along with healthcare providers鈥� satisfaction, and ultimately improve population health. This is known as the quintuple aim, and my research touches on different aspects of it. 

One of the things I鈥檓 particularly interested in is the value of expenditures on public health, meaning spending that鈥檚 more preventive than curative. These expenditures tend to be small, around 5% of total health spending in Canada. While there鈥檚 a general sense that prevention is better than cure, I鈥檓 trying to understand the differential returns of spending on preventive versus curative care. 

What piqued your interest in this topic? 

For my overall research topic in health, I鈥檇 say it鈥檚 not what got me into economics in the first place. Initially, I was interested in finance 鈥� until I realized I really, really didn鈥檛 like the idea of making more money from money. I discovered health economics, along with other areas related to human capital (like labour and education), and realized this was more 鈥渕e.鈥� Health raised fascinating problems: it鈥檚 mainly public, full of market issues like information asymmetry and uncertainty, and lacks real prices to guide resource allocation. That intrigued me, and I thought, maybe research in this area could actually help improve society. 

As for the value of public health expenditures, two things made it both interesting and challenging. First, when public health succeeds, nothing happens. It prevents bad things from occurring, so how do you prove you matter when success looks like nothing? Second, despite its importance, public health is often under attack, seen as paternalistic or an easy target during austerity. Third, I kept hearing from public health professionals and decision-makers that they needed evidence to justify their budgets, especially given pressures on hospitals and primary care. I didn鈥檛 know what the answer would be, but it felt like an important and fascinating puzzle. 

What question were you hoping to answer in your research? 

I wanted to see whether public health produces results in the long run, over several decades. As I mentioned, nothing happens immediately in public health, but what about all the lives saved down the road? Can we measure that? It turns out there鈥檚 some good, long-term data from national agencies and the OECD, spanning 40 to 50 years. Plus, new econometric methods now exist to address known issues in these datasets. 

With co-authors, we did two studies. One focused in Canada, looking at all the provinces, published last year. And one looking at OECD countries, including Canada of course, published last month. Go read them, they are both open-access thanks to Tri-Council funding: and .  

What is something people would be surprised to learn? 

The punchline is that public health spending does make a difference in the long run. A 10% increase in public health expenditures leads to a 2% decrease in preventable mortality in Canada over the past forty years. Across OECD countries, a 10% increase in preventive spending reduces all-cause mortality by 1% and increases life expectancy at age 65 by 0.4% over fifty years. 

That might not sound dramatic, but remember, curative spending saves lives now, while preventive spending saves lives later. And given that public health accounts for only around 6% of total spending in Canada in 2024 ($22 billion out of $372 billion), those long-run effects are pretty remarkable. It鈥檚 not about cutting curative care, of course, people who show up in emergency rooms need treatment. But it鈥檚 a reminder: just because the benefits aren’t visible right away doesn’t mean it’s not working. 

What鈥檚 the biggest misconception about your research area? 

The number one thing I hear is that 鈥渉ealth isn鈥檛 about money.鈥� I agree. It鈥檚 not about money; it鈥檚 about value. They鈥檙e not the same thing. The biggest misconception is that health economists only care about cutting costs. That鈥檚 completely wrong. We鈥檙e social scientists trying to understand how people and societies work, including incentives, efficiency, and equity. 

We don鈥檛 say, 鈥渃ut here.鈥� We ask, 鈥淚f you had $1 more, where could it do the most good?鈥� Maybe that dollar saves more lives in prevention than in hospitals, or vice versa. Our role is to bring evidence to the table, not to dictate policy, but to help make it better informed. 

Any new projects that you鈥檙e excited about? 

I have too many projects, and I鈥檓 excited about all of them! That鈥檚 the beauty of being a professor: you choose what you want to work on (as long as you can fund it). If it doesn鈥檛 excite you, you just don鈥檛 do it.

Some projects I can鈥檛 talk about yet. Research ideas are only good if they鈥檙e original! But one I can share is a grant proposal on the impacts of public health expenditures on equity. We know these expenditures improve health in the long run, but we don鈥檛 know for whom. For example, do the health gains go mostly to wealthier groups, or do they help reduce disparities? The project will develop measures of health disparities in Canada (by income, ethnicity, gender, and more) and test whether public health spending helps narrow them. What I find especially rewarding is the number of public health policy makers and practitioners involved as full partners. That鈥檚 what 鈥渞esearch for the public good鈥� should look like in my mind. 

What鈥檚 your favourite class to teach? 

I am in a graduate school. At the Master鈥檚 level, it鈥檚 my Health Policy in Canada (PADM 5221) elective in the Master of Public Policy and Administration program. The title says it all (and if that鈥檚 not obvious, you clearly weren鈥檛 paying attention鈥�  go back and read from the start). 

At the PhD level, it鈥檚 the Doctoral Seminar (PADM 6201) in the PhD in Public Policy program. I love it because it鈥檚 about teaching future researchers what a research plan really is: how to come up with interesting, answerable questions and secure the resources (financial, human, intellectual) to get the work done. The course is different every year depending on the students鈥� interests and methodologies. It鈥檚 also a humbling experience; it pushes me to revisit the foundations of social sciences. I learn something new every time I teach it. Remember, I鈥檓 a curious person! 

The Rebuilding First Nations Governance (RFNG) research team is pleased to have
three articles featured in the Canadian Public Administration (CPA) journal鈥檚 special issue on Indigenous
Resilience & Resurgence in the Transformation of Governance and Public Administration in Canada.

Our community partners identified the subjects of each of these articles as research important to their
work in advancing self-governance. They are:

• Revitalizing Indigenous Languages, Fostering Self-Governance, Overcoming the Indian Act: A
  Case Study of Lil’wat Nation
• Implementing Bill C-92: Strengthening Indigenous Jurisdiction and Community Resilience in Child
  Welfare
• Locked Up and Looking for a Way Out: First Nation Policy Control as a Path Out of the Indian Act
  Maze

Publication a Major Milestone

An early view of the articles is available online at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17547121. RFNG is a First Nations-led, multi-partner research project supporting nations to find pathways out of the Indian Act into exercising their inherent right to self-government. Effective self-governance is critical to the survival, health and well-being of First Nations. It is crucial to Canada鈥檚 future as a country. Honouring the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples that are affirmed by the Canadian constitution is a central pillar in reconciliation and in establishing a new Nation-to-Nation-to-Nation relationship among First Nations, federal, and provincial governments.

杏吧原创 University is a key partner in the project through Frances Abele, Distinguished Research Professor, who is principal investigator and project co-director with Satsan (Herb George) of the Centre for First Nations Governance (CFNG). The project is supported in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). 鈥淭his publication is a major milestone,鈥� says Abele.
鈥淥ut of 13 accepted articles in this special issue, RFNG is responsible for three of them which is a strong testament to the importance of our collective work.鈥�

鈥淲e are excited to support First Nations in moving from education and awareness about the Indian Act toward real action and implementation under the inherent right to self-government. We ensure our work is transferrable so that all First Nations can benefit from the research and these pathways forward,鈥� says Dr. Mason Ducharme, Executive Director of the CFNG and National Community Research Director for RFNG.

As the research project enters its final years, Abele anticipates the release of more scholarly works as well as a range of other materials First Nations can use for implementing their own inherent rights strategies. For enquiries and further information contact rfng@carleton.ca.

The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN) has been awarded one of 17 Partnership Grants nationwide.

The Faculty of Public and Global Affairs is celebrating its latest winners of research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), including a Partnership Grant won by James Milner, Professor of Political Science and director of the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN). Congratulations to all of the winners!

Partnership Grant

To provide support for new and existing formal partnerships to advance research, research training and/or knowledge mobilization in the social sciences and humanities.

Reimagining responses to forced migration through the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN)

James Milner, Political Science

Amount Awarded: $2,499,826

Insight Grants

To support research initiatives of up to five years.

The Art of Eight Limbs: A Longitudinal Study of Embodied Performance of Muay Thai by Women and Non-binary

Vicky McArthur, Media Production and Design

Amount Awarded: $278,550

Watching Territory: Creative Interventions into Examining Surveillance in Rural Northern Ontario

Stefy McKnight, Media Production and Design

Amount Awarded: $239,265

Insight Development Grants

To support research in its initial stages.

Electrification contestation: Overcoming resistance to net-zero transitions in Canada

Daniel Rosenbloom, School of Public Policy and Administration

Amount Awarded: $74,820

Parents鈥� experiences of symbiotic harms in the Youth Criminal Justice System

Dale Spencer, Law and Legal Studies

Amount Awarded: $62,220

Pricing uncertainty in the cross section of asset returns with a large news corpus

Ba Chu, Economics

Amount Awarded: $49,630

Digital transformation and geopolitics: Balancing development, agency, and global actors in Ghana

Isaac Odoom, Political Science

Amount Awarded: $74,116

SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant

To support short-term partnered research activities involving a postsecondary institution and a single organization from the public, private or not-for-profit sectors

Counting on Adivasi women leaders: How electoral quotas shape ecological governance in Maharashtra, India

.Gopika Solanki, Political Science

Amount Awarded: $24,983

SSHRC Connection Grant

To support short-term, targeted knowledge mobilization events and activities.

Credible econometrics

Matt Webb, Economics

Amount Awarded: $25,000

The Research Excellence Award is given to an applicant who demonstrates general excellence in research, and particularly evidence of leadership, that has made a significant contribution to their field of research, appropriate to the field and the candidate鈥檚 stage of career.聽

Jonathan Malloy

Jonathan Malloy is professor of Political Science and the Hon. Dick, Ruth and Judy Bell Chair in Parliamentary Democracy. He is recognized for his exceptional record of published scholarship over the past 3 years, including: three books with Canadian university presses (one sole authored monograph on Canada鈥檚 parliament, one co-authored monograph on the revitalization of graduate education, and one co-edited volume on Ontario politics); four peer-reviewed co-authored journal articles; two sole authored book chapters; several op-eds, and numerous papers which he presented at various conferences, symposia and colloquia.聽聽

The committee also noted Jonathan鈥檚 record of obtaining external research grants and recognizes clear evidence of research leadership through his position as President of the Canadian Political Science Association and the many contributions he鈥檚 made to supporting and encouraging a vibrant research culture at 杏吧原创 and in his home department. 

Siobhan Angus聽

Siobhan Angus is a professor of Communication and Media Studies who is blazing an impressive record of scholarship as an early career researcher who joined 杏吧原创 in July 2022. The committee was highly impressed by both the volume and quality of her publications, which include: one sole authored monograph with Duke University Press; three peer-reviewed journal articles for which she is either the lead author or sole author; one co-edited volume; and several book chapters and non-peer reviewed articles for which she is, again, the sole author.  

Siobhan has already won a major external grant award with many other publications currently forthcoming or under review. The committee also notes that Siobhan鈥檚 research has been recognized internationally for its innovation and quality. Of note, she is the recipient of two major book awards and possesses a lengthy record of 35 invited lectures and keynote addresses over the past three years from leading international universities including MIT, Cornell, University of London, Yale, University of Toronto and countless others.鈥��

Field Notes: Research Profile
Minjoon Lee, Economics

Through surveys and economic modelling, Minjoon Lee explores how individuals and governments can better prepare for the financial and caregiving needs of older adults.

Can you offer a 鈥渓ay鈥� description of your research topic?

My research mainly focuses on the issue of aging. The population is aging in many advanced economies. With increased longevity, households face various economic challenges. Most people expect to live for many years after retirement, and they need to be financially prepared to maintain their quality of life. With aging, physical health deteriorates, and at some point, individuals will need to constantly receive care from others for so-called activities of daily living (including eating, getting in and out of bed, bathing, etc.). They will need to plan ahead how they can and want to receive such care. Aging also comes with cognitive decline. With cognitive decline, people may lose the ability to make the right decisions for themselves. In particular, when they lose the ability to make financial decisions, they may fall victim to financial abuse or scams.  

My research studies how well households are prepared for these late-in-life issues and how to improve their preparedness. Most of my studies are based on household surveys, which I design with my colleagues, to learn about what people have done facing these challenges, what they plan to do, and what the remaining gaps are in their preparation. After gaining insights from the survey responses, I bring those data to economic models to design policies that can improve people鈥檚 well-being in late life.  

What piqued your interest in this topic?

Well, I am a person who loves to plan ahead for the future. There are people who like to set up saving goals for each year until retirement, and I am one of them. When I was setting up a spreadsheet with lifetime savings goals (which I am still using) during my Ph.D., my wife teased me by saying that I was planning for retirement even before getting my first job. 馃檪 With my interest in this topic, I also became curious about how others are doing for their future, which naturally led me to this research topic.  

On the other hand, when I was doing my Ph.D., I was lucky to participate in a large survey project where we surveyed older clients at a large mutual fund company to learn about their retirement preparedness and motivations for savings. This opportunity allowed me to learn about the issues the aging population faces, and they all seemed important enough to study.  

What question were you hoping to answer in your research?

The eventual goal of all my research is to help improve the quality of life of many households in late life. This could be achieved by designing better policies. We cannot leave this just to the individuals, and there are many things the government can do to improve the situation, including a better design of pensions, better provision of elder care, finding ways to promote employment of elderly workers, etc. All these policies often come with higher public expenditures, and my research aims to find the optimal design of such policies that maximize the benefits per dollar of tax money spent.  

Improving the quality of life could also be achieved by affecting individuals鈥� behavior. Improper management of their financial assets, not fully utilizing the tools designed to help their financial well-being after retirement, and not understanding how much they need to have adequate health care in old age can all result in a lower quality of life at old age. In my research, I try to detect common mistakes among households using surveys and propose ways to fix them.  

What is something people would be surprised to learn?

One of my recent projects studied cognitive decline and how that affects financial decision-making. Using a survey, we found that many older individuals (aged 55 鈥� 80 at the moment of the survey) are deeply concerned about losing the ability to make good financial decisions at some point and eventually doing harm to their own financial well-being. Some respondents used an analogy to driving鈥攁t some point, they should stop driving, but they may not notice when that point is once they have already significantly declined.  

A good way to protect themselves against such risks is to hand over control of their finances to someone they can rely on, such as family members, typically one of their children (particularly after being widowed), if they are reliable in terms of financial literacy and aligned interests. Somewhat to our surprise, we found that the survey respondents were mostly very confident that they have someone who can make decisions on their behalf if needed.  

What was more surprising was that, even with that support, they do not want to hand over control of their finances until they see a clear sign that their cognition has declined. This still exposes them to the risks of making mistakes. The desire to hold onto control could come from the desire to be one鈥檚 own agent while still capable. Given this tricky situation, we find that many individuals would appreciate it鈥攁nd actually, be willing to pay quite a large amount of money鈥攊f there is a way to help them detect their decline (e.g., periodic tests on cognitive ability).   

What鈥檚 the biggest misconception about your research area?

Many people think that Economics is only about money. Decisions involving money are, of course, important subjects in Economics research. However, in economics, we study a much broader range of decisions people make, often those that do not include non-pecuniary factors. Examples of this include types of health care people want to receive at very old ages, as discussed in my answer to the next question.  

Any new projects that you鈥檙e excited about?

One of the new projects I am excited about is looking at robot caregivers. In Japan, many nursing homes now use robot caregivers to address the increasing demand for elder care and the lack of labor supply. There are many different types of robots, including those that help move patients from one place to another and those that communicate with residents so they feel less lonely. Though it is not common in Canada, some nursing homes have started experimenting with communication robots.  

With recent developments in AI, robot caregivers may seem to be a sensible solution to this critical issue鈥攅lderly health care鈥攊n aging societies. However, whether this is a good solution or not depends on how care provided by robots is seen by potential users. Some may think that care provided by robots is inhumane, particularly if residents are supposed to chat with robots instead of humans to feel connected. Some may, on the other hand, feel better if robots instead of humans help them with certain activities of life, such as bathing and toileting. There is no large-scale evidence of how potential users of elder care feel about robot caregivers. I am planning to launch a large-scale survey, both in Canada and Japan, to learn about people鈥檚 perceptions of robot caregivers so that we can shed light on how robots can be best used in addressing care shortages.  

What鈥檚 your favourite class to teach?

It is hard to choose one course, but if I had to, I would choose Econ 5029: Research Method course. This is a mandatory course for all the MA students in Economics. In this course, students are asked to produce their own research paper. Transitioning from a consumer to a producer of research is never easy, so this is a challenging course for students. But, in the end, students leave the classroom with outcomes of their own research, which can be a part of their CV and also may be a basis for their future research. Seeing new ideas from students every semester and discussing how to improve the proposed projects with the entire class is always a fun and rewarding experience.

鈥淚f you spend any time on the anti-trans internet, you鈥檒l encounter a lot of content claiming that trans teens are really neurodivergent or mentally ill, as if you can be trans or mad, but not both at the same time鈥� says Yergeau, who points to social media accounts that use the language of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to 鈥榙iagnose鈥� trans people. 鈥淭he idea behind CBT is that you鈥檙e experiencing distress because you鈥檙e engaging in cognitive errors or distortions. My concern is they are labelling transness as a cognitive error and then seeking to obliterate that so-called error.鈥�

Yergeau says the rise in these armchair social media 鈥渄iagnoses鈥� is not new or coincidental: some mental health practitioners have historically linked sexual orientation鈥攁nd now gender identity鈥攖o obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

鈥淭here鈥檚 a nascent subtype of OCD called 鈥榯ransgender OCD鈥� and the name is misleading because in general it refers to presumed cisgender people who have intrusive thoughts about their gender identity,鈥� explains Yergeau. 鈥淭here鈥檚 this pipeline being created where anti-trans actors are co-opting that discourse for their own nefarious ends.鈥�

While Yergeau notes that therapies like CBT and exposure therapy have been used in many different contexts, they have concerns about some of the messaging embedded in those tools. Yergeau has started documenting examples of psychological materials, such as self-help workbooks and mental health apps, that question transgender identity and operate from a 鈥渃isgender鈥� norm.

鈥淭he narratives can be particularly damaging because they often rehash stereotypes that practitioners reinforce when they’re working with patients. They sometimes also move beyond just scripting to actual performing, such as 鈥榣et鈥檚 purposefully misgender you,鈥欌�� says Yergeau, who has experienced this personally. 鈥淧ractitioners don鈥檛 necessarily think of themselves as anti-trans, but they practice a behavioural modality that I argue is pretty harmful to people who are marginalized.鈥�

Yergeau is bringing other projects to 杏吧原创 from their prior work at the University of Michigan, as well. They are the director of the , funded by the Mellon Foundation, which 鈥渃enters crip wisdom, neuroqueer futures, and disability liberation in its engagement with the digital.鈥�

They are also co-lead on the , funded by the Mozilla Foundation鈥檚 Responsible Computing Challenge, which invites students 鈥渢o learn from disability culture as we (re)imagine accessible futures.鈥� It asks, 鈥淗ow might we imagine future technologies that prioritize disabled people?鈥�

Yergeau is looking forward to collaborating with 杏吧原创 students on these projects and more. Yergeau hopes their findings will encourage healthcare providers, community workers, and academics to reconsider practices ranging across disability design, neurodivergent data curation, and intrusive thoughts from a justice-oriented perspective. 鈥淗ow might we attend to the nuances of distress, joy, pain, and obsession,鈥� Yergeau asks, 鈥渋n ways that ensure the survival of trans-mad people?鈥�