The School of Policy Studies is excited to host the
2025 ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Social Policy Symposium
Prescription for Change: Canada's Social Policy Future
Friday 25 April between 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Robert Sutherland Hall - Room 202
138 Union Street, Kingston
The symposium will feature the Donald Gow Memorial Lecture, delivered this year by The Honourable Dr. Rosemary Moodie, Senator, Senate of Canada, alongside panels and talks featuring academic scholars, policy practitioners, and clinician-scientists. We will explore the key challenges reshaping Canada’s public policy landscape—including growing inequality, rising health care pressures, and increasingly complex social needs. Throughout the day we aim to foster cross-sector dialogue, drawing on lessons from Canada’s policy history to help shape a more integrated, equitable, and sustainable future.
Confirmed speakers and panelists include:
- Senator Rosemary Moodie — Senator Rosemary Moodie is a neonatologist at the Hospital for Sick Children, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto, and an Independent Senator for Ontario. A leading voice in health equity and child and family advocacy, her work bridges medicine, public policy, and social justice to advance the wellbeing of Canada’s most vulnerable communities.
- Dr. Keith Banting — Stauffer Dunning Fellow in the School of Policy Studies, Professor Emeritus, and Queen’s Research Chair Emeritus in the Department of Political Studies. He is one of Canada’s foremost scholars on social policy, inequality, and multiculturalism.
- Margaret Biggs — Matthews Fellow in Global Public Policy. Former President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet in the Privy Council Office. Ms. Biggs has extensive experience in social policy and played a key role in the creation of Canada’s National Child Benefit.
- Sherri Torjman — Vice-President of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, one of Canada's leading social policy think tanks.
- Dr. David Walker — Matthews Fellow in Global Public Policy and Professor Emeritus in Emergency Medicine and Policy Studies. Former Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Director of the School of Medicine at Queen’s University, and Chief Executive Officer of the Southeastern Ontario Academic Medical Organization.
…and additional speakers to be announced
This event is open to all! Registration is encouraged but not required. You can register using this url (via LinkedIn):
¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ The Donald Gow Memorial Lecture:
This lecture series, established in 1973, honours Donald Gow, the first Director of the School of Public Administration. The Donald Gow Memorial Lecture brings a prominent figure in public affairs to Queen’s University to speak on a topic in Canadian public policy. It is intended to complement the basic direction of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, which encourages interdisciplinary analysis of public policy issues. In the past, the Gow Lecture was an integral part of the School's annual Policy Forum, but has now become a stand-alone event in the school's annual calendar of events. Born in Calgary, Donald Gow received his BA (Political Science) at the University of Manitoba in 1940. He served with the Royal Canadian Signal Corps in Europe during the Second World War and was discharged with the rank of captain. Both before and after his war service overseas, Gow worked with the Civil Service Commission of Canada. From 1953 to 1956, Gow was assistant chief of the Defence and Works Section of the Treasury Board in Ottawa. In 1957, he attended the Imperial Defence College in London and then went to the NATO offices in Paris. In 1960, he returned to the Treasury Board to become involved in the early stages of pay research and labour policy. In 1965, Gow enrolled as a doctoral student in Political Studies at Queen’s University. Following his graduation in 1967, Dr. Gow became executive assistant to the principal at Queen’s University, and in 1970, the first director of what was then the School of Public Administration. Motivated by his public service and academic experience, he worked vigorously for the establishment and continual improvement of the Master of Public Administration program at ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ until his sudden death in 1973.