Paul Cappon

Paul Cappon is a Canadian academic, administrator, medical doctor, politician, and activist. He is perhaps best known for having led the Canadian Council on Learning throughout its existence from 2004 to 2012.

Early life and activism

Cappon has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from McGill University (1968), a Master's degree (1970) and doctorate (1972) in Sociology from the University of Paris, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from McMaster University (1980).[1] He also has specialty qualification in family medicine from Dalhousie University and in community medicine from the province of Quebec.[2]

Cappon was based in Halifax, Nova Scotia during the mid-1980s and was a prominent member of the Coalition Against Nuclear War organization in that city.[3] He also served as a Maritime provinces representative on the executive of Physicians for Social Responsibility. In 1983, he wrote an opinion piece in The Globe and Mail newspaper opposing cruise missile testing in Canada and arguing that the missile itself would be a destabilizing factor in international diplomacy.[4] The following year, he arranged for $75,000 worth of hospital equipment and medical supplies to be sent to Saint Lucia.[5]

Cappon subsequently moved to Montreal, Quebec, where he founded the Montreal General Hospital's Centre for Nuclear Disarmament and Community Health and worked at McGill University.[6] In 1987, he organized a cultural exchange trip in which thirty Quebec schoolchildren visited Moscow, then the capital of the Soviet Union.[7] Cappon was subsequently a prominent organizer for the eighth annual Congress of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, held in Montreal in June 1988.[8]

Quebec New Democratic Party president

At one time a member of the Liberal Party,[9] Cappon ran for the House of Commons of Canada under the banner of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in the 1988 federal election, ultimately finishing third in Laval. At one stage in this campaign, seven NDP candidates in Quebec issued a policy statement that was not authorized by the party leadership, attacking official bilingualism and calling for the provincial government to have sole jurisdiction over the protection and promotion of the French language in Quebec. Cappon opposed this statement, saying that it could turn Anglophone Quebecers into second-class citizens.[10]

Cappon was elected as president of the federal branch of New Democratic Party in Quebec on April 30, 1989, the date on which the provincial branch of the Quebec NDP became autonomous from the federal party. Cappon approved of the separation of the two parties, noting that would permit Quebecers to affiliate with the federal party without automatically joining the more nationalist provincial group.[11] Cappon subsequently urged Bob Rae to run for the federal NDP leadership in the 1989 leadership election, arguing that the Quebec wing of the party would be solidly behind him.[12] Rae ultimately chose not to run; Cappon, along with many Quebec delegates, supported Steven Langdon on the first two ballots of the party's leadership convention before shifting to the eventual winner, Audrey McLaughlin.[13]

In early 1990, NDP candidate Phil Edmonston won a federal by-election in Chambly to become the NDP's first elected member from the province of Quebec. During the campaign, Edmonston criticized his own party's position on the Meech Lake Accord on constitutional change; the NDP had called for amendments to the accord, while Edmonston favoured retention of the original language in its entirety. Cappon was critical of Edmonston's position, arguing that he should not be permitted to campaign against party policy.[14] Edmonston and Cappon subsequently emerged as bitter rivals, and Cappon ultimately resigned as president in June 1990 after Edmonston's supporters pushed through a vote of non-confidence in his leadership at a quarterly meeting of the Quebec party's federal council.[15] In resigning, Cappon said that the federal NDP in Quebec had become "an empty shell for [Edmonston]'s personal ambitions."[16]

Cappon initially planned to seek the NDP's nomination in Laurier—Sainte-Marie for an August 1990 by-election,[17] but he withdrew his candidacy in light of his quarrel with Edmonston. In a telephone interview, he stated, "The party is going nowhere in Quebec and I don't want to associate my prestige with running as a candidate at this time."[18] In 1991, Cappon left Quebec to take a position at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario.[19] He has not been publicly associated with any political party since this time.

Education advocate

Cappon served as Vice President, Academic at Laurentian University from 1991 to 1996.[20] In July 1996, he was appointed as director general of Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), an intergovernmental body made up of ministers of education and advanced education from Canada's provinces and territories.[21] In this capacity, Cappon became a frequent commentator in the Canadian media on a variety of issues surrounding education.[22]

On October 31, 2004, Cappon assumed the rules of CEO and president of the Canadian Council on Learning, a newly created national learning think tank.[23] In 2005, he announced a comprehensive strategy to inform Canadians on the links between health and learning.[24] In May of the following year, he issued the council's first annual report on the state of Canadian learning, consisting of an exhaustive report of trends throughout Canada.[25] He also continued to be a frequently cited source on education issues generally.[26]

In December 2006, Cappon called for a national strategy and better quality control in relation to post-secondary education, warning that other countries were far exceeding Canada in developing targets for funding, graduation rates, class size, and other matters. In a line that he would repeat several times in the following years, he warned that other jurisdictions would "eat [Canada's] lunch" in various areas of achievement if the country did not develop an effective national strategy.[27]

In November 2007, Cappon and Assembly of First Nations leader Phil Fontaine announced a new framework for evaluating learning in Canada's indigenous communities.[28]

The government of Stephen Harper removed funding from he Canadian Council on Learning in March 2010, on the basis of what some commentators believe were ideological motivations.[29] The council continued to operate until 2012, at which time its operations wound down. In September 2010, Cappon introduced a new study warning of a projected rise in the percentage of adults with low literacy skills in Canada's major cities.[30]

After the council ceased operations, Cappon became a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa's graduate school of international and public policy.[31]

Electoral record
1988 Canadian federal election: Laval
Party Candidate Votes%±%
     Progressive Conservative Guy Ricard (incumbent) 26,858 49.11
LiberalCéline Hervieux-Payette18,81934.41
New DemocraticPaul Cappon8,54615.63
Commonwealth of CanadaMario Ouellet4680.86
Total valid votes 54,691100.00–
Total rejected ballots 1,331––
Turnout 56,02279.25–
Electors on the lists 70,688––
Source: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer, Thirty-fourth General Election, 1988.
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References
  1. "Canadian Council on Learning announces appointment of new President and CEO," Canada NewsWire, 27 July 2004.
  2. "Council of Ministers of Education, Canada," The Globe and Mail, 19 September 1996, B12.
  3. Michael Harris, "Halifax anti-war prayer barred in biggest park," The Globe and Mail, 15 May 1982, p. 11.
  4. Paul Cappon, "Why the cruise must be barred from Canada," The Globe and Mail, 8 March 1983, p. 7.
  5. "Halifax group's equipment at St. Lucia hospitals soon," The Globe and Mail, 24 August 1984, p. 8.
  6. Graham Fraser, "Johnson considering A-arms referendums," The Globe and Mail, 12 November 1985, A4; Lawrence Martin, "Canadians do their part to produce open minds," The Globe and Mail, 11 May 1987, A7.
  7. Stephen Handelman, "Quebec students 'peace envoys' on Moscow trip," Toronto Star, 7 May 1987, A17.
  8. "NDPer quits as congress chief," Montreal Gazette, 28 May 1988, H15. The title refers to Cappon's decision to resign from a leadership position in the conference after announcing his that he would be a New Democratic Party candidate in the next federal election. His position was that the conference was non-partisan and that he needed to resign to ensure it would not be mistaken for a party political affair.
  9. Susan Semenak, "Quebec NDP Gears Up," Montreal Gazette, 28 May 1988, B1.
  10. Irwin Block, "No limit on anglophone rights implied: NDP candidates," Montreal Gazette, 7 November 1988, A1.
  11. Peter Kuitenbrouwer, "Quebec NDP splits from federal party," Montreal Gazette, 1 May 1989, A1. The federal NDP formally granted autonomy to the Quebec provincial party in December 1989, a development that Cappon said would save the federal party's standing in the province. See "Quebec NDP given autonomy," Montreal Gazette, 3 December 1989, A8.
  12. Judy Steed, "Blakeney, Quebec NDP chief urge Rae to run for leadership," Toronto Star, 29 September 1989, A13.
  13. Terrance Wills and Peggy Curran, "Dull leadership race has exciting finish," Montreal Gazette, 3 December 1989, A8.
  14. Ian Austen, "Stick to NDP line or quit, Edmonston told," Montreal Gazette, 14 December 1989, B6.
  15. Lewis Harris, "NDP's Quebec wing censures president," Montreal Gazette, 28 May 1990, A3; Irwin Block, "Cappon resigns as Quebec president of federal NDP," Montreal Gazette, 11 June 1990, A5.
  16. "NDP's Quebec president quits," Toronto Star, 11 June 1990, A10.
  17. Elizabeth Thompson, "NDP preparing to challenge Malepart's widow for riding," Montreal Gazette, 16 February 1990, A4.
  18. Irwin Block, "Cappon resigns as Quebec president of federal NDP," Montreal Gazette, 11 June 1990, A5.
  19. Hubert Bauch, "Cold comfort; The NDP can't do any worse than it has in the past in Quebec," Montreal Gazette, 3 July 1993, B2.
  20. "Canadian Council on Learning announces appointment of new President and CEO," Canada NewsWire, 27 July 2004.
  21. "Council of Ministers of Education, Canada," The Globe and Mail, 19 September 1996, B12.
  22. See for instance Peter Small, "Ontario teens rank low in math, study says," Toronto Star, 28 February 1998, A26; Sean Fine, "Are the schools failing boys? They're not just falling behind, they're giving up, some experts say," The Globe and Mail, 5 September 2000, A1; Caroline Alphonso, "Health funding top education; University costs push private outlays up as more students seek degrees, diplomas," The Globe and Mail, 26 November 2003, A9; Alanna Mitchell, "GOODBYE MR. CHIPS; The male teacher is a dying breed in Canada's classrooms," The Globe and Mail, 17 January 2004, F1. All of these sources, in common with many others, include quotations from Cappon.
  23. "Canadian Council on Learning announces appointment of new President and CEO," Canada NewsWire, 27 July 2004.
  24. Camille Bains, "One-of-a-kind new research centre to focus on relationship between health and learning," The Globe and Mail, 1 September 2005, A8.
  25. Louise Brown, "Canadians excel in school but 'can do better' at life," Toronto Star, 16 May 2006, A4.
  26. See for instance Colin Perkel, "Strategies urged on rural schools to close dropout gap with urban cousins," Canadian Press, 2 March 2006; David Howell, "Schools spring an oil leak: Lucrative oilpatch jobs fuel Alta. dropout rate," Edmonton Journal, 17 April 2006, A1; Caroline Alphonso, "Lack of interest keeping students out of university," The Globe and Mail, 28 March 2007; Maria Babbage, "All-day kindergarten a 'no brainer' to put kids on path to success: experts," Canadian Press, 7 September 2010; Anne-Marie Tobin, "High school dropout rates plummet, but there are trouble spots," Guelph Mercury, 4 November 2010, A7.
  27. Louise Brown, "Boom lowered on higher ed," Toronto Star, 8 December 2006.
  28. "A breakthrough for Aboriginal learning in Canada," Canada NewsWire, 20 November 2007.
  29. See Gary Mason, "Behind the political decision to cut the lifeline: Tories didn't like CCL's message or its independence," The Globe and Mail, 9 January 2010, A4.
  30. Lauren La Rose, "Canadian Council on Learning urges action to counter low literacy among adults," Canadian Press, 8 September 2010.
  31. Caroline Alphonso, "Poor math results push for national standards," The Globe and Mail, 4 December 2013, A1.
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