Janet Mason

According to a 2018 report from Statistics Canada, firearm-related crime in Canada has risen 42% since 2013. On November 1, students from both the Munk School’s Master of Public Policy (MPP) and Master of Global Affairs (MGA) programs tackled the challenge of addressing gun violence in Canada as part of the 4th Annual Policy-at-Munk Fall Case Competition.

Following the format of the National Public Administration Case Competition, students split into teams and come up with a proposal to tackle the issue at hand. In a unique opportunity, each team is provided with a coach from the Munk School or a partner organization to help them prepare their presentations in the week leading up to the event.  This year’s coaches were the Munk School’s Rhonda McMichael, Pam Bryant, Maurice Bitran, Michael Valpy, Yaprak Baltcioglu, Drew Fagan, Jamison Steve and Hannah Evans.

This year’s competition judges were four distinguished policy leaders representing each level of government.  Samantha Tattersall is assistant secretary in the Priorities and Planning Division of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat; Cordelia Clarke Julien is assistant deputy minister, Ontario Growth Secretariat,  Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing; Jill Vienneau is  assistant deputy minister, Strategic Policy Division at the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services; and Sunil Johal is director of Business Growth Services with the City of Toronto. “All of the presentations were excellent,” said Vinneau. “To choose a winner, we went with the team with the most focused recommendation”.

The winning team consisted of second-year MPP/MGA students Liam Bekirsky and Christopher Andreou; and first-year MPP student Chen Haobo. They proposed a targeted strategy to address existing legislative and program gaps that would reduce both the supply of guns and the demand created by underserved youth joining gangs.

Although there could only be one winning team, the judges were impressed with each presentation. “I want to encourage these students to consider working in the federal government because we need new recruits of this calibre,” said Tattersall.

Student participants found the opportunity to compete with their peers and network with judges a challenging but exciting one. “It was an enormously educational experience,” said Luka Glozic, a second-year MPP student.

The Policy-at-Munk Fall Case Competition is one of a number of events the Munk School provides for students to develop and hone important professional policy skills. Other competitions include the Ford+Munk conference, the Municipal Case Competition and the SHIFT case competition.

November 5, 2019