The Institute for Social Research (ISR) of 91ÑÇÉ« has over 60 years of experience of delivering high quality, representative, and reliable data to various private sector clients and government agencies.
Some recent public and private sector projects include:
Research Period:Ìý2001 – Present
Funding Source:ÌýOntario Public Health Units
Project Description:ÌýThe goal of this study is to gather data for the planning and evaluation of public health programs and services across Ontario. Modeled after a study first conducted by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, the RRFSS study gathers data which is used to monitor key public health issues such as flu shots, health eating, drinking and driving, vaccination, women’s health, and so on. The Institute conducts approximately 10,000 telephone interviews, on both landlines and cell phones, with residents in the regions served by each participating Public Health Unit.
ISR’s contact:ÌýLiza Mercier, Project Manager
For more information:Ìý
Research Period:Ìý1981 –Ìýpresent
Funding Source:ÌýCAMH; Government of Ontario
Principal Investigator:ÌýDr. Hayley Hamilton, CAMH
Project Description:ÌýSince 1981, ISR has been conducting the annual CAMH Monitor survey. This is the longest ongoing addiction and mental health survey among adults in Canada. The CAMH Monitor provides trend data in alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use, mental health, as well as gauges public opinion toward tobacco and alcohol policies. The Institute conducts data via an online survey among approximately 3,000 Ontario residents each year.
ISR’s contact:ÌýLiza Mercier, Project Manager
For more information:Ìý
Research Period: 2025-present
Funding Source: WomenMind at CAMH
Principal Investigator: Dr. Christine Wickens, CAMH
Project Description: Calls for change to medical culture, medical education, and the way that medical schools handle mental health concerns are becoming louder as medical studentsÌýdemonstrateÌýhigher rates of anxiety, depression, substance use, and suicide compared to theÌýgeneral public. This study aims to explore the role of gender inÌýperceivedÌýbarriers and facilitators toÌýmedical students'Ìýmental healthcare and examine how these factors may predict healthcareÌýneeds andÌýutilization.ÌýÌý
Students enrolled in one of Ontario’s six medical school are invited to participate in an online survey.
ISR’s contact:ÌýLiza Mercier, Project Manager
Research Period:Ìý1981 –Ìýpresent
Funding Source:ÌýGovernment of Ontario, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Principal Investigator:ÌýDr. Hayley Hamilton and Dr. Tara Elton-Marshall, CAMH
Project Description:ÌýNow spanning more than 40 years, the OSDUHS is the longest ongoing school survey in Canada, and one of the longest in the world. The Institute has conducted this survey for CAMH since 1981, and is currently undertaking its 20th wave of this study. The 2025 OSDUHS study, which now includes measures of student mental and physical well-being, will be administered in-person in classrooms across Ontario to approximately 13,500 students in grades 7 through 12 between November 2024 and June 2025. This comprehensive strategy facilitates comparisons between Canadian and American studies, and provides information on the critical age patterns associated with smoking, drinking, drug use, and physical and mental well-being.
ISR’s Contact:ÌýStella Park, Project Manager
For more information:Ìý
Since it was established in1976, the Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO) has collected and preserved archival records from over 120 ethnocultural, racialized and Indigenous communities. Assisted by ethnic and Indigenous associations and dozens of actively engaged community researchers, the MHSO undertook oral history interviews and collected historical photographs and personal and institutional textual records during the first decades of its operation, producing a resource of unparalleled richness and scope.
The unrivalled assemblage of primary source materials in its archives – tens of thousands of interviews, newspapers, photographs and textual records – documents the many different ways in which life in Ontario has been experienced. There is no other comparable grouping of primary sources in Canada capable of opening up alternative readings of the country’s past – challenging the false hegemonic of White settler colonialism. Programming based on research conducted in the archives advances inter-community relations by helping Ontarians recognize multiple historical perspectives and gain inclusive understandings of our pasts.
In 2023, the ISR spearheaded the efforts bring the Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO) to 91ÑÇɫ’s Keele Campus. ISR currently hosts the MHSO in one of our physical facilities on the second floor of the 91ÑÇÉ« lanes Building. While part of the 91ÑÇÉ« community, the MHSO continued to extend it digital leadership in cultural preservation and community engagement on campus through the launch of a groundbreaking online catalogue (/research/robarts/events/launch-of-a-new-searchable-online-catalogue-for-the-archives-of-the-multicultural-history-society-of-ontario/).
NEWS (March 31, 2026)
MHSO partnership with Internet Archive Canada to keep its historical newspapers freely available online - here’s the link and here’s the .
The MHSO has amassed one of the most comprehensive collections of ethnic newspapers in Canada. Although it is composed primarily of 20th-century papers, it also includes a number of 19th-century publications. Hardcopy copies of over 610 newspapers have been assembled. They comprise the core of the collection. In 1988/89, the Society also began microfilming ethnic newspapers. To date, over 330 newspapers and periodicals from 51 ethnocultural communities have been microfilmed. The MHSO ethnic newspapers collection is of great interest to individual readers, scholars, and libraries from around the world. For instance, an arrangement with a leading European publisher led to microfilms being deposited in the Leiden, Harvard, and Ohio State University libraries.
The first batch of newspapers– are already accessible.
The MHSO delivered the corrected files to Internet Archive Canada for 24 more newspapers. This batch includes theÌýChinese Canadian Community News,ÌýHung Chung She PoÌý(The Chinese Times),ÌýModern Times WeeklyÌýand theÌýOttawa Chinese Community Newsletter. The rest of the MHSO’s collectionÌýdigitized historical newspapersÌýwill follow soon.
Research Period: 2021 -2022
Principal Investigator: Hospital Pharmacy in Canada (HPC)
Funding: Hospital Pharmacy in Canada (HPC), and their sponsors, Pfizer Canada, Pharmascience/ Pendopharm, and Baxter Canada.
Project Description:
The 2020/21 Hospital Pharmacy in Canada (HPC) Survey gathers important information from pharmacy directors and their teams in hospitals across the country to create a robust image of the state of hospital pharmacy practice in Canada. The 2020/21 HPC Survey Report will provide comparison of the aggregate results based on province; hospital size; teaching versus non-teaching hospitals, and adult versus pediatric patients. New this year are questions on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pharmacy services and operations. As well, with the addition of facilities with less than 50 acute care beds, the survey will provide a first look at small hospitals in Canada. This will expand the outreach of the survey to over 500 recipients.
ISR’s Contact: Richard Myles, Associate Director
For more information: https://cshp.ca/site/res/hospital-pharmacy/overview?nav=resources
Research Period: 1981 – present
Funding Source: The Interprovincial Sport and Recreation Council
Co-Principal Investigators: Christine Cameron and Cora Lynn Craig, CFLRI
Project Description: The Physical Activity Monitor (PAM) is a telephone survey of nationally representative population samples. The PAM survey tracks physical activity and sport participation among Canadians and tracks changes in physical activity patterns over time, along with factors influencing participation. The 2019-2020 PAM will collect data from approximately 1,200 residents of Canada. Data will be collected in every Province and Territory. Interviewing will be conducted in English and French.
The research is being conducted for the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute (CFLRI) a not-for-profit research agency that has been studying the physical activity patterns of Canadians since 1981.
ISR’s Contact: Richard Myles, Associate Director
For more information: http://www.cflri.ca/
Research Period: 2020 – present
Principal Investigator: Christine Cameron, CFLRI
Project Description: This work is being competed for a consortium of provinces and territories under the leadership of the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute (CFLRI) and the Sport Information Research Centre (SIRC) of National, Provincial/Territorial and Municipal Sports Organizations across Canada. The main purpose of the study was to determine capacity (in terms of number of patrons and sports serviced), organization staffing levels and needs, and likely demands for suture services. A web survey with both English and French questionnaires), has been developed at ISR that allows for different paths through the survey so that questions are sensitive to the geography and nature of the organization (national, provincial or municipal).
ISR’s Contact: Richard Myles, Associate Director
For more information: http://www.cflri.ca/
Research Period:ÌýÌý2019
Project Description:ÌýÌýThe Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer (ONCAT) commissioned the Office of Vice-Provost Academic (VPA) to complete a study on the transfer process for 91ÑÇÉ« and Seneca students who transferred between the two institutions. ISR completed the research design and the data collection for the project. The study included an online survey of students who transferred between institutions as well as focus groups. The primary focus of the study was it understand reasons for the transfer and what factors helped or hindered students in their efforts to transfer with the ultimate goal of enhancing academic pathways for students looking to transfer between the college and the universities.
ISR’s Contact:ÌýLiza Mercier, Project Manager
For more Information:Ìýhttps://www.oncat.ca/
Research Period: 2021 – present
Principal Investigator: Christine Cameron, CFLRI
Project Description: The Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute (CFLRI) has monitored secular trends involving the opportunities, facilities, policies and programs for physical activity in Canadian workplaces over the past 30 years. This information has been collected via a paper survey sent to a representative sample of workplaces in Canada. This iteration of the survey will include an online option should participants wish to complete the survey electronically rather than by paper. This current study looks to provide policy makers, municipalities, and key stakeholders with updated information on the current opportunities for physical activity in
Canadian workplaces. The survey will be distributed to roughly 10,000 workplaces. The information will be disseminated through a summary report to Sport Canada and a proposed series of research bulletins which will be available on the CFLRI’s website starting late fall 2021 into 2022. A module of questions on the workplace response to the COVID pandemic is included.
ISR’s Contact: Richard Myles, Associate Director
For more information: http://www.cflri.ca/
Research Period:Ìý2012
Funding Source:ÌýGovernment of Ontario, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Project Description:ÌýThis province-wide, annual study measures the public’s access to physicians by interviewing a random selection of Ontarians on their experiences seeking primary health care. The Institute completed approximately 11,200 telephone interviews across Ontario each year. Respondents were asked about their satisfaction with health care in Ontario, their personal health and if they have a family doctor.
ISR’s contact:ÌýLiza Mercier, Project Manager.
Research Period:ÌýÌý2018-2020
Funding Source:ÌýÌý Government of Ontario’s Independent Review of Police Checks
Principal InvestigatorÌýDr. Lesley Jacobs, Professor of Law & Society and Political Science at 91ÑÇÉ«, Director, Institute for Social Research, Academic Director, Canadian Forum on Civil Justice
Project Description:ÌýThe objective of this research is to acquire an accurate picture of how the general public perceives police stops in Ontario and of their own experiences (including the experiences of family members and friends) with police stops in the past year. ÌýThis research is designed to reflect the diversity – especially with regard to age and race – of these perceptions and experiences among Ontario residents.Ìý The telephone survey will be completed with 1,600 Ontario residents with efforts made to ensure calls are made to residents from a diversity of Ontario communities.
ISR’s Contacts:
Survey Lab: Ìý1-888-847-0148
Project Manager: ÌýDavid Northrup (416-736-5467 direct line)
Principal Investigator:Ìý Dr. Les Jacobs (416-736-2100 ext. 44661),Ìýjacobs@yorku.ca
For more Information:ÌýGovernment of Ontario’s Independent Review of Police Checks can be found at the Office of the Independent Reviewer of Ontario Regulation 58/16 (Police Checks)ÌýÌýhttps://streetchecksreview.ca
Funding Source: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Principal Investigator: Dr. John Cunningham, Senior Scientist, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, CAMH, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto and a Canada Research Chair in Addictions
Project Description: The survey used in this research project was first administered in 2008. Completion of the survey again in 2018 will provide an assessment of how Canadians beliefs about cannabis use have changed in light of the debates and decision to legalize cannabis use. Interviews were completed at ISR in August of 2018 and interviews will be completed in November 2018 just after the legalization of cannabis in Canada. The survey is an attempt to determine how problematic respondents think cannabis use is in comparison to other social issues (alcohol use, environmental problems, crime, gambling, income differences and poverty, etc.) and the extent to which this may have changed over time, as legalization has become more common.
ISR’s Contacts:
Survey Lab: 1-888-847-0148
Project Managers: David Northrup and Liza Mercier
Principal Investigator: Dr. John Cunningham, John.Cunningham@camh.ca
For more Information: CAMH: www.camh.ca and John Cunningham: www.addiction-ssa.org/profiles/john-cunningham
To look at ISR's projects in: