Highlights from 2023 Senate committee reports
Senate of Canada | Sénat du Canada
Canada’s Upper Chamber | La Chambre haute du Canada
Arctic sovereignty, Islamophobia and psychedelic drug therapies for veterans — these are among the many Senate report topics that captured headlines and attention spans this year.?
Before we turn the page and adjourn until the new year, here’s a recap of some of the most-read committee reports published in 2023.?
Keep scrolling to review a few highlights, starting with this report on Arctic security by the?Senate Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs, which identified an urgent need for defence, civilian and industrial infrastructure.
Empowering Canada’s foreign service
The picture of floppy disks on the report cover says it all: Canada’s foreign service is behind the times. In the first substantive examination of the foreign service in more than 40 years, the?Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade?pinpoints the “significant reforms” Global Affairs Canada needs to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Promising PTSD treatments
About 10 to 15% of Canadian veterans have been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder — and their suicide rates are far worse. Alarmed by these trends, the Senate’s?Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs?undertook a sober examination of a promising treatment: psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Learn about this alternative therapy that is gaining momentum in other parts of the world.?
Gender-based analysis
While calling on the federal government to bring “GBA Plus” into the mainstream, the?Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology?helped raise awareness of this underused concept.
Read the report’s overview of this important tool for equity seeking groups and its recommendations, then?check out the government’s response.
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Combatting hate
Violent attacks against Canadian Muslims have increased since the Quebec mosque shooting in 2017, making Canada the leading G7 country for targeted killings of Muslims motivated by Islamophobia. What is fuelling this “disturbing rise,” and how can we reverse these trends? Those are among the questions that prompted the?Senate Committee on Human Rights?to study Islamophobia in Canada. Read the committee’s recommendations to combat anti-Muslim hate.
Truth, Education and Reconciliation
Members of the?Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples successfully pressured holders of residential school records to turn some of those records over. This came after the committee’s investigation into church organizations, federal departments and other entities that participated in the Indian Residential School system.
Learn more about the committee’s work.
More reports from 2023
Senate committees also shone a light on the country’s?dwindling francophone minority communities, urged the federal government to adapt to a?rapidly growing digital economy, considered?low-carbon hydrogen?as a fossil fuel alternative and examined Canada’s?unclear sanctions regime.
A full overview of Senate committee reports from 2023 — including special studies, legislative reports on bills and administrative matters — is available on the Senate’s website.
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