McGill-UofT Wellbeing Research Seminar
The McGill-UofT Wellbeing Research Seminar Series is co-organized by Dr. Felix Cheung (University of Toronto) and Sofia Panasiuk (University of Toronto), Anthony McCanny (University of Toronto), and Dr. Chris Barrington-Leigh (McGill University). The seminar series is open to all and will be held online via Zoom.
Registration for this series/any talk is required in advanced, but is free.
Schedule Autumn 2024
Date/Time - October 8th (12 pm ET)
Speaker: Kelsey O’Connor
Title: Evidence for the Easterlin Paradox
Date/Time - November 12th (12 pm ET)
Speaker: Claudia Senik
Title: TBD
Date/Time - December 3rd (12 pm ET)
Speaker: Kelsey O’Connor, Claudia Senik
Title: Panel Discussion: The Easterlin Paradox
Preventing youth homelessness
October 11th, 2024 12-13h30 PM EST
Online Webinar
Join the Québec Homelessness Prevention Policy Collaborative (QHPPC) on Friday, October 11th, from 12:00 to 1:30 PM, for an inspiring discussion featuring Cécile Arbaud, Executive Director of Dans la rue and co-founder of the Coalition Jeunes+, alongside youth from the Jeunes+ Committee. Together, drawing from their lived experiences, research, and field knowledge, they will provide an update on youth homelessness prevention in Quebec: where we currently stand, what is already in place, and how we can advance further.
Making road safety moral – a brief history of arguing about seatbelts, helmets, and drunk-driving in Britain
October 17th, 2024 12-13h00 PM EST
Hybrid Room 1140 2001 McGill College or on zoom
In this talk, Professor Westin will discuss how and why road safety came to be seen as a ‘public health’ issue in Britain from the 1960s onwards, and the associated battle that took place concerning the morality of legislating about seatbelts, motorcycle helmets, and drunk-driving. The debates surrounding these innovations make up a valuable case study that demonstrates the role of morality within public health. As she will show, processes of moralization in relation to road safety were operating in several different ways: in the identification of the ‘public health problem;’ in the framing of opposition to new legislation on the basis of individual freedom; and in the arguments that road safety advocates then formulated to infuse decisions about road-related behaviours with moral weight, expanding the parameters of moral responsibility. Professor Weston will conclude with a few reflections on how this might inform debates and decisions surrounding public health law today.
McGill Centre for Climate Change and Health Launch
November 20th, 2024 - 16h30-18h00
School of Population and Global Health
2001 McGill College Ave. 11th floor
room 1140
Suicide Prevention as a Public Health Strategy: Historical Perspectives
November 28th, 2024, from 12 to 1 p.m. EST
Hybrid Room 1140 2001 McGill College or on zoom
The prevention of suicide has constituted a major public health concern in Canada for over half a century. Following the decriminalization of attempted suicide (1972), and the identification of suicide as a public health priority in the Lalonde Report of 1974, there have been multiple overlapping initiatives employed to address this tragic social phenomenon. Strategies have included crisis centres, volunteer-staffed telephone services, barriers at suicides “hot spots”, public awareness campaigns, and repeated calls for enhanced mental health services. This presentation looks back on the first generation of suicide prevention strategies, analyzing how and why they became a priority in the decade leading up to the Canada Health Act of 1984.
The Policy Talks Webinars were recorded on Zoom and uploaded to our YouTube Channel.