Disrupting the Policy Process
Last week marked the beginning of the Munk + Evergreen intensive course. I am particularly excited for this course because I think it will challenge a lot of the assumptions and beliefs we have been otherwise taught to accept about the policymaking processes in Canada.
One thing that I’ve been reflecting on is the way in which our institutions are established in such a way that many voices — particularly those of marginalized/vulnerable populations — are not able to meaningfully influence policy through more traditional bureaucratic routes. They cannot always rely on public consultations to meaningfully address their concerns, or cannot wait for a change to run through the notoriously slow bureaucratic process, particularly during times of emergency. Many marginalized groups are also under- or unrepresented in the political and policymaking sectors, especially in positions with decision-making power.
As such, many actors and organizations must turn to radical tactics, by actively disrupting the everyday workings of society for the government to acknowledge their voices. Not-for-profit organizations and activist movements must break the “rules” of the policy process. I think of the community advocates and volunteers that established safe injection sites in Toronto when the municipal and provincial governments failed to sufficiently protect drug users from opioid overdoses. I think of Black Lives Matter Toronto, which brought together hundreds of people to protest for two weeks outside of the Toronto Police Headquarters after multiple Black men were killed by officers on duty. I think of the Unist’ot’en camp in British Columbia, which continues to organize protests across the world against the building of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline through their sovereign territory.
This leaves me with more questions than answers — whose interests do our policymaking processes serve, and more importantly, whose do they not? Who is in the room when policy decisions are made? What strategies can marginalized/vulnerable groups use to have their voices heard? I’m looking forward to exploring these questions over the semester and learning more about the not-for-profit sector’s role in policymaking.
