Jonathan Sas (2012 - 2013)

Canada

Jonathan was born in London, Ontario, the beneficiary of loving and supportive parents and the lucky brother to three close-knit siblings. A voracious reader, an avid environmentalist and a die-hard Habs fan, Jonathan is happiest when making dinner with friends and family and when engaged in political debate.

Jonathan received his honours B.A. in political science from the University of Toronto while immersing himself in the cultural diversity of Toronto’s most interesting neighbourhoods and working as the opinion editor at the alternative magazine The Gargoyle. After working in health and environmental policy for a year after graduation and then venturing to backpack through South America to learn Spanish, Jonathan returned to academia to pursue an MA in political science at the University of British Columbia. There, his thesis focused on critiquing the sustainable development approach to international climate policy.  His research looked at the historical role fossil fuel played in the evolution of global capitalism. Understanding that role, Jonathan argued, helps highlight a fundamental contradiction underpinning the current international approach to climate policy found in the Kyoto Protocol: that states can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously growing their economies.

Jonathan comes to the Sauvé Program having spent the past year and a half as the editor of one of Canada’s leading commentary and analysis magazines, The Mark News. It is there that Jonathan became preoccupied with the narrowness of the political discourse that characterizes Canada’s traditional media landscape and interested in starting a project that could help to diversify the country’s media ecology and strengthen its progressive voices.

The rise of new media provides opportunities to challenge and move beyond the narrow confines of the political discourse that now characterizes Canada’s media landscape. As a Sauvé Scholar, Jonathan proposes to develop the architecture of a new digital space that can serve as a forum for alternative voices. At its core, it will be a space committed to realizing a more diverse and representative media ecology in Canada. Its purpose will be to gather and amplify alternative news and viewpoints and to create a collaborative space that actively engages and connects journalists, academics, and progressive groups to one another and with the public.

Judging by the multiplicity of his interests and hobbies, Jonathan will also spend time focusing on other passions. He looks forward to beginning the road (back) to bilingualism and will study French while in Montreal. In addition to having music at the core of his social scene, he lists as passions camping, skiing, jogging, snow-shoeing and playing tennis.

Jonathan speaks English and some Spanish, French, and Hebrew.
 

Mother Tongue

English and some Spanish, French, and Hebrew

Country of origin

Canada

Country of Residence

Canada