Ep.34: Paul Kershaw on Generational Fairness

During Black History Month in Canada, we celebrate the many achievements and contributions of Black Canadians and their communities. We highlight Black Canadians’ role in making Canada the culturally diverse, compassionate, and prosperous country it is. We also acknowledge the work that remains to be done in addressing anti-Black racism in our society.  

This episode we welcome Dr. Denise O’Neil Green.  For over 30 years, Dr. Green, a published author and award-winning expert has applied her visionary approach to equity, diversity and inclusion, anti-racism, organizational change and transformational leadership to organizations. 

We explore the evolution of the role of diversity leader throughout her career and note the challenges that persist today.  Dr. Green provides advice on the skills and traits to look for when recruiting diversity officers and offers guidance to candidates considering taking on diversity, equity and inclusion roles. 

We discuss Canada’s ongoing journey to address anti-Black racism and how projects like the 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women Initiative help to spotlight the many contributions of Black leaders.

About our guest:

Dr. Denise O’Neil Green is an internationally recognized expert in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and transformational leadership. She is President and Principal Consultant of Denise O’Neil Green Consulting. With 30 years of experience, she has worked across different sectors and is Creator of InstitutionalDiversityBlog.com, reaching 100 countries. 

As Executive Vice-President, she founded the Division of Equity and Community Inclusion at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Leadership, Adult and Higher Education, University of Toronto and Co-Founder of the 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women Project. 

She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Additional resources:

• https://www.deniseoneilgreenconsulting.com/ 
• https://www.100abcwomen.ca/
• https://www.conferenceboard.ca/product/levelling-the-playing-field_2023/

When Joshua Gans and his co-authors released their book Prediction Machines in 2018, they were writing about a topic that seemed quite niche. At this time, machine learning was just starting out. In the last year, the speed at which artificial intelligence has advanced has surprised almost everyone.

In this conversation, we hear how the analytical framework that he and his colleagues developed helps to sort through the hype. He argues artificial intelligence is best thought of as a prediction machine. You’ll hear why he’s optimistic that artificial intelligence will be able to help people remove some of the drudgery from some jobs, but at this time, doesn’t seem likely to take over full jobs. He’ll share how understanding artificial intelligence as an advance in predictive statistics will help leaders assess how artificial intelligence may or may not be useful. 

About our guest:

Joshua Gans is a Professor of Strategic Management and holder of the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management, the University of Toronto (with a cross-appointment in the Department of Economics). Joshua is also Chief Economist of the University of Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab. Prior to 2011, he was the foundation Professor of Management (Information Economics) at the Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne and before that, he was at the School of Economics, University of New South Wales. 

At Rotman, he teaches MBA students entrepreneurial strategy. He has also co-authored (with Stephen King and Robin Stonecash) the Australasian edition of Greg Mankiw's Principles of Economics (published by Cengage), Core Economics for Managers (Cengage), Finishing the Job (MUP), Parentonomics (New South/MIT Press) and Information Wants to be Shared (Harvard Business Review Press) and The Disruption Dilemma (MIT Press, 2016);

Canada’s labour force isn’t growing fast enough to keep up with the aging population.  On one hand we have a labour supply challenge. But, on the other hand the workers we do have don’t always have the skill sets that we need today, but particularly into the future.  

My guests this episode are both actively working to reshape our skills development and labour market preparedness for students today so that they can fill the labour market demands of tomorrow.  We explore how educational institutions are evolving to better equip students for workplaces and how better relationships between employers, educators and the K-12 system are starting to reshape how skills are taught and how people can gain a better understanding of the career options that are available to them.

About our guests:

Dr. Jane Goodyer is Dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University in Toronto. As chief academic and administrative officer, Jane leads an inclusive community of engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs toward achieving Lassonde’s strategic academic goals. 

Before joining Lassonde, she worked at Massey University, New Zealand, in various leadership roles, including Head of the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology. Having led New Zealand’s first Degree Apprenticeship pilot program, she’s now introducing this extraordinary first in Canada. 

Jane is driven to make education more accessible, advancing women and other underrepresented groups in engineering while breaking down systemic barriers. 

Ian Howcroft is the CEO of Skills Ontario, an organization dedicated to promoting careers in the skilled trades and technologies.  Previously, Howcroft was the Ontario Vice President of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, a company he worked with for nearly three decades.

He earned an L.L.B from Western University, as well as an Honours B.A. in History and Political Science from McMaster University.

Additional links:
https://lassonde.yorku.ca/digital-technologies 
www.skillsontario.com 

Today’s generation feels maligned by the press and often ignored by politics. Priced out of home ownership, dealing with the growing impact of climate change, and criticized for not appreciating that life is hard and always has been—life doesn’t seem fair for young people in Canada. 

But my guest this episode is bringing evidence, passion and a clarity of perspective to reveal the real ways in which life truly is harder for today’s younger generation.  How hard work just isn’t paying off the way it did for previous generations—particularly for those who count themselves in the baby boom generation.

Through the Generation Squeeze think and change tank, Dr. Paul Kershaw is shedding light on the concrete ways that our fiscal realities are skewed against younger Canadians. We discuss the disparities between the perceptions of seniors and the challenges faced by young people today. We dive into the topics that exemplify these gaps in experiences and lived opportunities between generations.

Intergenerational solidarity is a central theme of Generation Squeeze, and Dr. Kershaw highlights the organization's success in fostering cross-generational understanding of these critical issues. We explore the importance of involving seniors in creating a more thoughtful approach to policy and financial structures.

About our guest:

Dr. Paul Kershaw is an award-winning professor at the University of BC, public speaker, regular media contributor and Founder of Generation Squeeze. Gen Squeeze is Canada’s leading voice on generational fairness. His work has directly influenced many policy areas, including $10/day childcare, the National Housing Strategy, pollution pricing, taxation of housing wealth, and commitments to generational fairness. Kershaw is the Director of the Masters of Public Health Program in the UBC School of Population & Public Health.

Additional links:

Generation Squeeze
Gen Squeeze’s Hard Truths Podcast
Conference Board of Canada: Inequality in Canada: Separating Fact from Fiction
Conference Board of Canada: 2023 Federal Budget Analysis 

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other large language model AI have brought the long-standing promises of artificial intelligence to fruition. 

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, accumulating millions of users worldwide. However, this tool and others like it are being met with trepidation and fear by many AI pioneers.  

To help us make sense of these developments and their implications is Valérie Pisano, President and CEO of Mila, the Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

In this episode, you’ll hear why AI leaders are calling for a temporary pause on further AI development. We also consider the implications of these tools for workplaces and workers.  Additionally, we delve into the unique opportunity we have in the coming months to set a path for responsible AI development, leveraging Canadian ingenuity and a deep respect for humanity.

About our guest:

Valérie Pisano holds the position of President and CEO of Mila, the Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence, since May 2018. With more than 15 years of experience in talent management, leadership, diversity and organizational dynamics, she works to promote the Quebec AI and technology ecosystem by getting involved on the boards of directors of Forum IAQuébec and the Montreal chapter of the Human Technology Foundation as well as on the executive committee of the DHDP health data valuation platform. In addition, she is particularly interested in initiatives to promote the feminization of leadership in Quebec. A mother of three daughters, she was CEO of Talent at Cirque du Soleil and co-founded the Mobius Project on exploring unconscious bias towards women. She began her career with the firm McKinsey after completing a master's degree in economics at HEC Montréal.

Additional Links:

Read about the impact MILA is having:
https://mila.quebec/en/mila-impact/

Conference Board of Canada research “Digital Occupation Pathways: From Vulnerable Jobs to Rapid-Growth Careers”
https://www.conferenceboard.ca/product/digital-occupation-pathways/

The Conference Board of Canada’s Innovation Report Card
https://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/innovation-report-card-2021/

The history of humanity is a history of movement. 

Today, movements of people from one place to another are subject to severe political and social constraints.

Our guest this episode has spent a good portion of his life creating supports for people who are fleeing human rights or environmental disasters.  

Dr. Lloyd Axworthy joins us to share what he and others at the World Refugee & Migration Council see as the great need for reform in our treatment of refugees in Canada and around the world.  We discuss how Canada’s generally positive political and social approach has helped our country take the lead in creating new and innovative ways to support refugees. 

We also discuss how the global crisis of displaced people is putting increasing pressure on governments and international institutions to respond more effectively in the coming years.

About our guest:

The Honourable Lloyd Axworthy is the chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council and one of Canada’s leading voices on global migration and refugee protection. After a 27-year political career, where he served as Canada’s minister of Foreign Affairs and minister of Employment and Immigration, among other postings, Mr. Axworthy has continued to work extensively on human security, refugee protection and human rights in Canada and abroad. He was presented with the Pearson Peace Medal by the Governor General of Canada in May 2017 and is a Companion of the Order of Canada. In his term as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Winnipeg, Mr. Axworthy initiated innovative programs for migrant and aboriginal youth communities, and has also done a great deal of work on refugee reform as a Richard von Weizsäcker fellow at Germany’s Robert Bosch Academy.

Additional Links:

Report: A Renewed Call to Action - World Refugee & Migration Council https://wrmcouncil.org/publications/renewed-call-to-action/

World Refugee & Migration Council (WRMC) - wrmcouncil.org

WRMC Resources on Repurposing Assets for the Forcibly Displaced - wrmcouncil.org/FARA

North and Central American Task Force on Migration - wrmcouncil.org/TaskForce

Professor Tracy Bear is a well-known researcher focusing on Indigenous knowledge, resilience and embedding research in true partnerships with communities. In 2021, she was appointed director of the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute.

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians got to know Professor Bear through her role as academic lead of “Indigenous Canada”—a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) designed to help Canadians understand the history of Indigenous Peoples. Since its inception in 2016, the course has grown from twenty thousand to more than four hundred and sixty thousand learners and has been named the most popular online course in Canada.

In our conversation Tracy talks about how Canadians need to face the uncomfortable truths of the relationship between Canada and Indigenous Peoples. We also need to understand that the impacts of these uncomfortable truths continue to impact Indigenous families and communities to this day. 

Ultimately, you will hear that Tracy is optimistic that greater understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing will help us all move forward and enrich our lives.

If you’re someone affected by residential schools and you need help, the number for the National Indian Residential School Crisis Line is 1-866-925-4419.

About our guest:

Savage (Tracy) Bear is a rabble-rouser, Nehiyaw’iskwew (Cree woman) and member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation in northern Saskatchewan. She is the Director for the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute (MIRI) and an Assistant Professor for the Indigenous Studies Department at McMaster. She is also the new incoming National Director of Walls to Bridges (W2B) a prison education program in Canada. Before coming to McMaster, Bear worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta, where she was the Director of the Indigenous Women & Youth Resilience Project and the Academic Lead on “Indigenous Canada,” a highly successful online course boasting over 450,000 learners.

Additional Links

Take the Indigenous Canada course https://www.coursera.org/learn/indigenous-canada

Explore the work of the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute (MIRI) https://miri.mcmaster.ca/   

Learn about Walls to Bridges http://wallstobridges.ca/ 

Learn more about reconciliation at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, https://nctr.ca/ 

Find our research on Indigenous and Northern communities here: https://conferenceboard.ca/focus-areas/indigenous-northern-communities 

Listen to our other podcasts at https://www.conferenceboard.ca/insights/podcasts 

You can find all of our research here: https://www.conferenceboard.ca/ 

In May 2020, in the depths of the pandemic, Canadian Nicholas André G. Johnson broke new ground as Princeton’s first Black valedictorian. In over 274 years, no other Black student had been recognized in this way by the institution, making Nicholas a ground breaker and as we’ll hear—a mentor to other Black professionals forging their path through academic and professional settings. 

Nicholas talks about the experience of being the first Black valedictorian and the intense media attention he received from both American and Canadian press. He shares how his passion for technology and for building connects to what he sees as his life’s work—creating value in the world.

We also discuss how organizations can engage Black professionals to bring their authentic selves into the workplace. Conference Board of Canada research found that Black Canadians had the highest rate of feeling like they needed to adjust their identity in a corporate setting. A concerning finding since almost half of the Black respondents said they needed to engage in code switching to fit in.  

Finally, Nicholas shares his advice for following your passions, building a community, and connecting with others to make a difference in the world. 

About our guest:

Nicholas André G. Johnson has engaged in machine learning research at MIT, Princeton University, Oxford University and the Montreal Institute of Learning Algorithms. He is currently a PhD student at MIT and a Researcher in Residence at Bain Capital Crypto. Nicholas holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton University. He was the Valedictorian of Princeton’s Class of 2020 and is the University’s first Black Valedictorian. Nicholas has previously been featured by the New York Times, CNN, ABC News, Time and BET. As a professional speaker, Nicholas is an advocate for educational attainment in marginalized communities and increased representation in STEM industries.

Additional information can be found:

https://www.nicholasagjohnson.com/

CBOC Research: Bridging the Gap Between Identity and Social and Emotional Skills: Black Canadians’ Perspectives of Social and Emotional Skills in the Workplace

Access all our research at www.conferenceboard.ca 

The war in Ukraine brought the country and its people to the forefront of international attention. Every day more and more people are seeking to help Ukrainians to end the war and to recover from the damage that is being inflicted.

Dr. Marnie Howlett has dedicated her life to understanding—and helping others understand—how Ukraine and its people view their country and their unique position as a borderland between Europe and Russia.  

She joins us this episode to provide a deeper understanding of how Ukraine’s history, its complexities and its realities on the ground have helped to shape the war and are fueling the Ukrainian resistance.

About our guest:

Marnie Howlett is a Departmental Lecturer in Politics at the University of Oxford. She completed her PhD in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 2021. She holds a BA (High Honours) in International Studies (2015) and a MA in Political Science (2017) from the University of Saskatchewan. She has held Fellowships supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies, and the Shevchenko Foundation of Canada. Marnie has previously served as a legislative intern with the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly and as an international electoral observer with CANADEM during Ukraine’s three most recent elections.

Marnie has provided a number of links to organizations and sources of additional information about Ukraine listed below.

Two notable organizations supporting Ukraine with direct ties to Saskatchewan include: 

• Stream of Hopes 
• Ukrainian Patriot 

 
A Live Working Document of Various Organizations that are Supporting Civilians and the Armed Forces on the Ground in Ukraine (Google Doc Link)

Some reputable Ukrainian news sources (in English) include: 

• The Kyiv Independent
• The New Voice of Ukraine 

Book - Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder

Check out all of our analysis on the war in Ukraine at https://www.conferenceboard.ca/insights/impact-of-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine

And access all our research at conferenceboard.ca.

The ongoing war in Ukraine has shaken the foundation of international relations.  In many ways this war feels like déjà vu—a land war in Europe, a larger power attempting to overtake another smaller country for its own gains.  But in other ways this war is unprecedented.  Professor Jane Boulden joins us this episode to help make sense of the impact of the war in Ukraine on the international order, on the United Nations and on how this war has eroded the rules-based order that we thought governed international relations.

 About our guest:  

Jane Boulden is a Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and cross-appointed as an Adjunct Professor at Queen’s University. From 2004–2014, she held a Canada Research Chair in International Relations and Security Studies. From 2000 until 2004, she was a MacArthur Research Fellow at the Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford. She works in the areas of superpower politics, nuclear weapons, conflict management, the United Nations and Canadian foreign policy.

 Additional information can be found here:

https://rmc-ca.academia.edu/JaneBoulden

https://www.emporia.app/users/janeboulden

 Check out all of our analysis on the war in Ukraine at https://www.conferenceboard.ca/insights/impact-of-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine

 And access all our research at conferenceboard.ca.