Biography
Dr. Kate Bezanson is a senior policy scholar and advisor with expertise in political economy, public and constitutional law, gender, rights, federalism, Canadian and comparative social, economic, and labour market policy. She holds a BA Honours (Trent), MA and PhD (York), and LLM (Osgoode Hall Law School).
She was seconded from 2022-2025 to serve as senior advisor to the Prime Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada, advising in areas such as federal budgets, intergovernmental affairs, select foreign and international development matters, constitutional and Charter matters, social policy (notably childcare, school food, reproductive rights, housing, gender-based violence, and fiscal federalism) among others.
She is a full professor of Sociology at Brock University, and has served as Associate Dean (Faculty of Social Sciences), Department Chair (Sociology), University Senator, Chair of the Senate Student Appeals Board, and faculty affiliate with the MA in Critical Sociology and the MA in Social Justice and Equity Studies programmes at Brock University. She is a faculty research fellow at the Gender and the Economy Institute at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Dr. Bezanson has also served as a member of the Canadian Judicial Advisory Committee, on the editorial boards of the Canadian Review of Social Policy and the Canadian Review of Sociology, and is the past president of a not-for-profit childcare centre and a not-for-profit second stage housing centre.
She strives to bridge academic research with practicable policy approaches, and to translate this work both for general audiences and into government policy. Her analysis and commentary have appeared in Canadian and international print, radio and television media such as the CBC, Globe and Mail, New York Times, National Post, TVO and CTV.
