How to Escape the Fake: Making Good Policy in the Age of Misinformation
Join us for an evening of dialogue and networking with Canada’s dynamic public policy community.
This year’s IRPP fall lecture will feature Canadian author and scholar Timothy Caulfield, one of North America’s foremost commentators on health and science misinformation and research ethics. He is a professor in the faculty of law and the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, and the research director of the university’s Health Law Institute. Caulfield’s latest book, The Certainty Illusion: What You Don’t Know and Why It Matters, lifts the curtain on the forces contributing to our information chaos and unpacks why it’s so difficult — sometimes even for experts — to escape the fake.
The lecture will be followed by a lively cocktail reception that will bring together Parliamentarians, members of the public service, academics and those from the non-profit and private sectors.
A copy of The Certainty Illusion is included with every registration. Funds raised this year will go toward supporting a junior research associateship at the IRPP, as we cultivate the next generation of public policy thinkers. Junior researchers receive hands-on experience and mentorship in the production of rigorous, in-depth research on Canada’s toughest policy challenges.
Timothy Caulfield is a Professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health, and Research Director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta. He was the Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy for over 20 years (2002 – 2023). His interdisciplinary research on topics like stem cells, genetics, research ethics, the public representations of science, and public health policy has allowed him to publish almost 400 academic articles. He has won numerous academic, science communication, and writing awards, and is a Member of the Order Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He contributes frequently to the popular press and is the author of national bestsellers: The Cure for Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness (Penguin 2012) and Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: When Celebrity Culture and Science Clash (Penguin 2015), and Relax, Dammit!: A User’s Guide to the Age of Anxiety (Penguin Random House, 2020). His most recent book is The Certainty Illusion: What You Don’t Know and Why It Matters (Penguin Random House, 2025). Caulfield is also the co-founder of the science engagement initiative #ScienceUpFirst and has written, hosted and produced documentaries, including the award-winning TV show, A User’s Guide to Cheating Death, which has been shown in over 60 countries, including streaming on Netflix in North America.