Research & Analysis

  • Missing Marriages, Empty Baby Carriages

    Peter Jon Mitchell, Cardus Family Program Director, reports on the link between Canada’s severe baby-making problem and young Canadians increasingly choosing to delay or reject marriage.

    Wedding industry vendors are reporting a boom in bookings – or at least south of the border according to the Associated Press. Couples who waited out the pandemic are booking their big day, as are those who married during the pandemic but are now p...

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  • Charting Educational Justice

    Brett Fawcett argues Alberta charter schools should be free to operate on religious grounds to meet the just vision of Canada’s founding constitutional vision.

    What does a just education look like?

    We talk a lot about what it means to provide a quality education to our children, but perhaps we’ve forgotten that you can’t have a good education without it also being a just education. In virt...

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  • At Home in Houses of Worship

    Cardus Executive VP Ray Pennings breaks down for Convivium’s Peter Stockland new data on the eagerness of Canadians across faith traditions to gather again in their churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples.

    The COVID-19 pandemic has meant bitter medicine for Canada’s religious faithful but its aftermath could be the good news churches and other houses of worship have been waiting for.

    Poll resu...

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  • Religious Freedom Equals Educational Freedom

    The latest call to defund Ontario’s Catholic schools both rewrites Canadian history and goes counter to international schooling norms, Cardus Education Program Director David Hunt argues.

    In terms of cultural insensitivity, the latest call for ending Ontario’s Catholic school funding wins the shamrock, coming...

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  • When Calls to Service Call Us Back

    The Cardus Religious Freedom Institute’s Diakonia Project moved its two researchers to faith-based service themselves, Peter Stockland reports.

    When Father Deacon Andrew Bennett and researcher Johanna Lewis began planning the Cardus Religious Freedom Institute’s Diakonia project last year, their aim was to tell the stories of Canadi...

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  • 10 Highlights of the Year for Cardus

    Daniel Proussalidis and Monica Ratra write that while 2020 was a forgettable year for many reasons, Cardus initiatives throughout the year provided memorable highlights for the organization and our supporters.

    It’s cliché at this point, but 2020 is surely a year most of us would like to forget. And not just because of the pandemic or the brutally polarized political rhetoric of the past year. But, as we think back on the past year at Cardus, there’s actually a lo...

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  • A Christmas of Spiritual Longing

    An Angus-Reid/Cardus poll shows 85 per cent of Canadians abiding by COVID lockdown rules. But human need for family and friends means government can’t take compliance for granted, Ray Pennings warns.

    If mommy kisses Santa Claus this Christmas, hopefully they’ll be in the same household bubble.

    After all, COVID means this is going to be a holiday like no other we’ve experienced before.

    Canadians’ plans for the holiday season are a reminder ...

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  • Addressing Canada’s MAiD Concerns

    Medically assisted death advocates inside and outside Parliament are gung-ho to expand it. But Cardus’ Ray Pennings says national poll numbers show Canadians want MPs to curb their enthusiasm.

    Just because politicians and activists are gung-ho about expanding medical assistance in dying (MAiD), doesn’t mean all Canadians are so enthusiastic.

    If anything, Canadians would tell the politicians it’s time to slow down and broaden the discussion...

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  • Canada’s Hidden Economy

    Economic impact is one of religion’s less-talked-about features but Stephen Lazarus writes that there may be at least $67 billion of Canadian GDP worth discussing.

    TORONTO – Newcomers to this country often find Canadians have a curious stance toward religion. We seldom say much negative about religion in public, but then we never take it too seriously either. A new study, ...

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  • Dignity That Illuminates Community

    Convivium Editor Peter Stockland talks with Rev. Deacon Andrew Bennett, director of the Cardus Religious Freedom Institute, about regaining the light of shared humanity in this time of pandemic and racial protest.

    Peter Stockland: You talk about human dignity being something that radiates from inside us. What do you mean by that?

    Andrew Bennett: Christians and other tra...

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  • Ottawa Must Give Giving a Nudge

    The toll COVID-19 has taken on the charitable sector makes this prime time for the federal government to launch an equitable national donation matching program, writes Daniel Proussalidis.

    It didn’t take long for the federal government to help grieving families when an Iranian missile brought down a Ukraine-bound passenger plane back in January.

    There were 57 Canadian citizens and 29 permanent residents among the 176 who died in the cr...

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  • Beyond Academics

    Through the strengthening of their school community as well as the surprising growth of an extended community, Community Christian School in Drayton, Ontario looks beyond just the academic in their transition to remote schooling.

    Raymond Verburg, principal of Community Christian School in Drayton Ontario, cites a Zoom meeting with a Grade Seven class in late April to illustrate how COVID-19 forced closures have affected students.

    “There were a number of students (online), and...

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  • Upholding Community

    Between hurdles such as rural Internet issues, emotional needs, and kids being kids, Northumberland Christian School has discovered that the path to teaching remotely relies heavily on the community they've always valued, reports Peter Stockland.

    It didn’t take long after the mad scramble caused by COVID-19’s forced closure of Ontario schools for Ginette Mack to realize some things never change.

    “Kids are kids,” Mack says looking back on the days after rural Northumberland Christian School re...

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  • Recalibrating Education

    When the Ontario government made the call to shut down school buildings, John Knox Christian School's leadership team jumped into action. In the second of a series on independent education, Peter Stockland reports on how the school got back on track so quickly.

    George Petrusma knows exactly where he was at 4:03 p.m. on Thursday March 12, and the decision facing him, staff and students at John Knox Christian School in Oakville, Ontario. 

    “I was having a conversation with all our staff who were in the buildin...

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  • Independence and Inequality

    Ontario’s independent schools outperformed their government counterparts during COVID-19. Peter Stockland reports on policy recommendations from Cardus Education’s David Hunt to strengthen Ontario's education for all students.

    In a policy brief submitted to the Ontario government today, Cardus Director of Education David Hunt says the COVID-19 crisis has exposed “the cracks”...

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  • Working Out Well-being

    Losing a job is about more than a loss of income, because work is about more than money, writes Cardus researcher Johanna Wolfert. Governments must keep the non-monetary aspects of work in mind as they try to support those rendered jobless by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    COVID-19 has ravaged Canada’s labour market. Staggering unemployment numbers and ...

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  • Is Human Dignity Enough?

    Rabbi Reuven Bulka examines a recent Cardus Religious Freedom report on human dignity, suggesting that there may be more to the question surrounding the freedom to make personal choices.

    Any issue I might have with the presentation on human dignity co-authored by Father Deacon Andrew Bennett and Aaron Neil recedes deep into insignificance compare...

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  • Exploring Canada’s Christian Schools

    Adrienne Castellon and Cardus Director of Communications Daniel Proussalidis continue their conversation about a series of case studies mapping the stories of 11 Catholic and Protestant schools across Canada.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBZZwZQP6BU 

    This is the second of a two-part series. To read the first piece, please click here: ...

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  • Speaking the Passion of Christian Schooling

    Adrienne Castellon talks to Cardus Director of Communications Daniel Proussalidis about a series of case studies she worked on mapping the stories of 11 Catholic and Protestant schools across Canada.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfd_m2lhBo0 

    Daniel Proussalidis: What motivated this particular research of 11 case studies, several provinces involved, several c...

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  • Smudging Indigenous Religious Freedom

    A B.C. court decision declaring native smudging ceremonies as mere cultural practices is troubling whitewashing of the bond between spiritual practice and religious meaning, argue Brian Dijkema and David Hunt.

    Most court decisions are a zero-sum game. One side’s win is the other’s loss. But this was not the result last week at the B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo. Both sides, and the public, lost in ...

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