Child Mortality is a core indicator for child health and well-being. The toll of children under the age of five over the past two decades is staggering: between 1990 and 2015, 236 million children worldwide died before their fifth birthday. In 2000, the world leaders agreed on one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as reducing the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, known as the MDG 4 target. However, with the end of MDG era and being unsuccessful to achieve the target, the international community has agreed on the new framework – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The proposed SDG target for child mortality represents is: by 2030, preventable deaths of newborns to be reduced to at least as low as 12 deaths per 1,000 live births and under-five mortality to at least as low as 25 deaths per 1,000 live births. In order to meet this target, it is imperative to understand the main causes behind child mortality.

Kristen Yee is the Program Officer of Saving Lives at Birth Program at Grand Challenges Canada. Grand Challenges Canada is funded by the Government of Canada and fund innovators for outcome-based innovation to save and improve lives in low and middle-income countries. In her role as a Program Officer, she works to ensure interventions are participatory and entail the perspectives of those such interventions aim to support

Shaun Morris is a clinician-scientist in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and scientist and principal investigator, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, SickKids Research Institute and Centre for Global Child Health. He is also an assistant Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto, cross appointed to the Division of Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He completed his medical degree at Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, and his Master’s in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Morris’ current research interests include large scale observational studies of childhood morbidity and mortality in South Asia, randomized controlled trials of low cost interventions to save lives and improve neurodevelopment in Asia and Africa, and the epidemiology of globally important infectious diseases in Canada.

Tayyaba Mohsin, Host
Julia Chan, Producer & Technical Producer
Samira Basir, Executive Producer

Music Credits
Not Dead by Fine Times
End of Days by Purple Planet Music
Mock Machine by T.Nautilus

Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Toronto has recently been named a ‘major hub’ for human trafficking within Canada. Of all police-reported cases nationwide, 65% occur in Ontario alone. According to a study conducted by the Alliance Against Modern Slavery in 2014, it was estimated that in Canada 71% of human trafficking cases involved domestic sex trafficking. Sex trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control, direction, or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit them. Human trafficking is considered a serious criminal offence, and is strictly prohibited under the Criminal Code of Canada, which outlines six offenses specific to human trafficking. Sex trafficking is the most prevalent form of modern slavery within Canada. We spoke to policy experts to identify solutions in addressing this problem that affects over 16,000 Canadians.

Bruce Rivers is the Executive Director of Covenant House Toronto and Special Advisor to the International Forum for Child Welfare. As a highly regarded child welfare expert and advocate, Bruce has over 30 years of experience fighting for the protection of child and youth rights on a global scale. He has held a number of senior executive roles, including 16 years as Executive Director of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto. Bruce also served as Director at the local Catholic Children’s Aid, the Chief Executive Officer of Community Living Toronto, and the Executive Director of the Child Welfare Secretariat of the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services. Bruce has been an active member of numerous national and international boards, forums and task forces devoted to research and advocacy. He obtained his Master of Social Work from the University of Toronto, and is a sought after speaker.

Michele Anderson is the sex-trafficking specialist at Covenant House and has spent more than 30 years supporting young victims of sexual abuse. Michele’s devotion to this work goes beyond her time with Covenant House as she is also a member of the Toronto Counter Human Trafficking Network and was a presenter at the Alliance Against Modern Slavery’s Symposium. Michele has contributed to the Ontario Coalition Research Initiative on the “Incidence of Human Trafficking in Ontario” and Justice Canada’s Forum on Forced Marriage. As an anti-trafficking advocate, Michele works collaboratively with numerous community partners, including the Toronto Police Service’s Human Trafficking Enforcement Team. She provided instrumental support to the victims involved in Toronto’s first human trafficking conviction in 2014.

Julia Chan & Macrina Smart, Hosts & Producers
Ian T.D. Thomson & Jonah Kotzer, Technical Producers
Samira Basir, Executive Producer

Music Credits
Not Dead by Fine Times
More Like You by Brave Shores

Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Canadian criminal justice system continues to fail the many survivors of sexual assault. For survivors, the experience of seeking help from law enforcement and going to court often deepens their existing wounds and trauma. Despite increased attention, sexual assault conviction rates remain meagre: one in five reports of sexual assault are treated as baseless by police, which translates into less than 1% of sexual assaults resulting in a conviction. This compels victims to keep quiet and refrain from reporting and pressing charges. In the rare event that sexual assault cases enter the courts, victims are often treated as mere witnesses to the crime, while the Provincial Crown Prosecutor presses charges on their behalf. The failure of law enforcement and the justice system to meet the needs of sexual assault victims is complex, touching on policy issues that involve problems in measurement and evidence, changing cultural stigmas, and an rural/urban divide in report rates.

Amanda Dale is the Executive Director of the Barbra Schlifer Clinic, Canada’s only legal clinic that offers free legal, counselling, and interpreter services to those who identify as women and non-binary survivors of sexual violence. She is deeply devoted to changing the conditions that threaten women’s safety, dignity and equality. Her leadership was pivotal in the Jane Doe Audit of Toronto Police sexual assault investigations and the successful restriction of the use of religious arbitration in the settlement of family law matters in Ontario, amongst many other achievements.

Robyn Doolittle is an award winning author and journalist with Canadian national news publication, The Globe and Mail. She recently co-authored Unfounded: Will the Police Believe You?, a 20-month investigation into the variation in reported sexual assaults deemed “unfounded”—or not believed to be true—by law enforcement across Canada. Robyn’s #1 bestselling book on the troubled personal life of the late former – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, called Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story, won her critical acclaim and took the inaugural Kobo Emerging Author prize for non-fiction. Robyn began her career at the Toronto Star, covering crime and later municipal politics.

Paula Maurutto is a Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Toronto. Her current research explores legal innovations in Canadian specialized courts, with a particular focus on domestic violence, Aboriginal, mental health, community/wellness and drug courts in six jurisdictions across Canada.

Celine Caira & Julia Chan, Hosts & Producers
Macrina Smart & Richard Tang, Technical Producers
Samira Basir, Executive Producer

Music Credits
Islands by The XX
Not Dead by Fine Times
How Come You Never Go There by Feist

Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0