Hundreds of thousands of Canadians continue to carry the burden of convictions for minor possession of cannabis obtained prior to legalization. Despite support for an automatic expungement process to eliminate the collateral consequences of punishment, the Trudeau government opted for a less favourable policy instrument – record suspensions. Drawing from parliamentary debate and committee hearings, the author summarizes the discussion and debate on Bill C‐93 and analyzes this misguided decision using Miljan’s work on policy instrument choice and rationality. The emphasis on bureaucratic rationality specifically resulted in a maintenance of the status quo when it comes to criminal justice policy and an uninspiring approach to cannabis amnesty in Canada.

While the social sciences are experiencing narrative and emotional turns that are largely based on exploratory and theoretical qualitative research, the problematic dismissal of qualitative research approaches continues to loom large outside academia. Frequently described as a collection of “anecdotal stories,” qualitative research is dismissed as unscientific and unreliable— comments that limit the perceived usefulness of qualitative findings, especially in terms of policy reform. This article problematizes evaluating qualitative research according to quantitative measures of rigour and explores the richness and value of documenting experiential stories and the process of storying in social science research. Notably, we take up the issues of criminal record suspension (pardons) and the abolition of carceral segregation as two case studies to demonstrate how the qualitative value of experiential research and personal stories are simultaneously mobilized and rejected by key actors such as politicians, government researchers, and judges. Our analysis highlights the power that stories have when it comes to influencing change within the criminal justice system, depending on who takes up/rejects these stories. We conclude with a discussion of why stories matter and how, when “layered,” they can contribute to the production of meaningful interventions to the ongoing criminalization and punishment of vulnerable people.

Criminological literature outlines various roles for public criminologists and reflects on both the form and purpose of public criminology. This article reviews this literature and considers institutional and political activist ethnography as methods through which criminologists can address critique, and better combine social justice research and advocacy work. Such methodological considerations demonstrate that, for some, 'doing' public criminology means actively engaging in advocacy work alongside research participants and other activists. Examples and reflections from the author's own work with the criminal justice voluntary sector (CJVS) in Canada demonstrate that a public criminology informed by institutional and political activist ethnography is especially important if we want to: (i) better understand the role of the sector in supporting people with criminal records; and (ii) strengthen the relationship between academics, policymakers, advocates, practitioners, and people with lived experience of criminalisation and punishment.

Seeking to support graduate students in engaging in feminist sociological research, we provide guidance on “working the project”—working collaboratively and creatively to foster compassion and solidarity as we bring diverse research projects to fruition. We offer reflections on our everyday experiences and struggles as emerging feminist researchers, including with writing research proposals. We also include four condensed research proposals ‐ on the social organization of care work, sex work, criminal justice, and abortion care ‐ to support fellow students in the process. Spurring collaborative, fun and inclusive ways of working, we speak to feminist scholar‐activists who may require additional support in navigating the social relations of academe, while contributing to collective projects of investigating and remaking the social organization of everyday life.

Food marketing to children is ubiquitous and persuasive. It primarily promotes foods of poor nutritional quality, influences children's food preferences and habits, and is a factor in childhood obesity. Given that food marketing relentlessly targets children in traditional/digital media and the built environment, children need critical media literacy skills that build their understanding of food marketing's persuasive effects. However, little research connects media literacy with food marketing and health, including effective strategies for teaching and evaluating such programming for children. This perspective presents the outcomes of a stakeholder meeting on best practices in teaching and evaluation on media literacy and food marketing to children. Strategies for promoting critical thinking (teaching content, teaching practices, teaching supports, and parent/caregiver involvement), and strategies for measuring critical thinking (program effectiveness and broader long-term impacts) were identified. These include, among other things, the need to capture the range of marketing formats and current food promotion trends, to include inquiry-based and co-creation activities, and to support ongoing media literacy development. Overall, these strategies suggest useful criteria for media literacy programming related to food marketing, and highlight the importance of media literacy for giving children the skills to navigate a complex food environment.

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This dissertation examines how actors within Canada's penal voluntary sector identify, navigate, resist, and strive to eliminate structural stigma and collateral consequences of punishment. Using an approach to qualitative research informed by institutional ethnography, anti-oppressive practice, and public criminology, my research explores how practitioners attempt to support people with criminal records despite many exclusionary policies and practices -including those enforced by the penal voluntary sector itself -that create obstacles to various social domains (e.g., employment and housing). This research is motivated by my experience working in the penal voluntary sector during a period (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) in which many punitive policies, including changes to Canada's Criminal Records Act, were brought into effect by a federal Conservative government and maintained by a subsequent Liberal government.To understand the penal voluntary sector's role in supporting people with criminal records in the community, I conducted twenty-two interviews with various sector actors. I also attended several conferences, meetings, and events alongside practitioners to stay connected to the sector and ensure an ongoing understanding of the important issues to people with criminal records and those who support them. Additionally, I incorporated analysis of texts (e.g., policies, forms/assessments, public consultation reports, parliamentary committee studies) to frame the political, institutional, and social relations that shape the day-to-day experiences of practitioners and the people they support in the community. Finally, I engaged public criminology as part of my research methodology and included reflections on my advocacy work throughout the dissertation.While critical sociologists and criminologists mostly describe the penal voluntary sector as a net-widening mechanism, I maintain that understanding the day-to-day work within the sector is crucial to identifying, navigating, resisting, and eventually eliminating structural stigma and collateral consequences of punishment. Additionally, I contend that spaces where practitioners meet (e.g., conferences) are key sites for developing communities of care through which academics, practitioners, advocates, and people with criminal records can work towards a just transition from penal and other related systems (e.g., homelessness). Finally, I reflect on academia's role in resisting and eliminating carceral power and structural stigma and on the lessons learned from my efforts at doing so. vi 5. Navigating .