About Bearing Institute
Bearing Institute is a Canadian non-partisan public-policy institute focused on legislative research and ready-to-table amendments. We produce original primary-source analysis and submit it directly to Parliament — built for the legislative process and designed to support safe passage for good policy.
Who we are
Bearing Institute was founded by Alexis Roumanis and Matthew Trenholm — two Canadians who became convinced that Parliament deserves better research than it typically receives, and decided to produce it themselves.
Roumanis brings a background in publishing, public policy, and legislative engagement. Trenholm brings twenty years of front-line healthcare experience and a long record of public commentary on policy and civil liberties. Together they combine original data research with the ability to translate complex legislative questions into arguments that decision-makers can actually use.
Our first two submissions were delivered to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. One of them contained original data extracted from UK Ministry of Justice source files that had not previously been published in analytical form.
Alexis Roumanis
Director of Research and Policy
Alexis Roumanis, M.Pub., is a co-founder of the Bearing Institute, a children’s book author with more than 100 published titles, and a published researcher at the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing.
Matthew Trenholm
Director of Public Policy and Communications
Matthew Trenholm, MSc, is a co-founder of the Bearing Institute and a published researcher in the Journal of International Health Sciences and Management. He currently works in Canada’s busiest emergency room.
What we do—and how we do it
We identify bills before Parliament where the public record is incomplete, where evidence has been overlooked, or where the legislative language creates unintended consequences. We then produce original research addressing those gaps — with full citations, primary-source data, and amendments that can be tabled directly in committee or at Senate stage.
Our first two submissions addressed Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, and Bill C-223, an Act to amend the Divorce Act. Both were submitted to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights ahead of parliamentary debate.
Our approach
Evidence from primary government sources
Where published research relies on secondary sources or aggregated statistics, we go further. Our analysis of Bill C-9 required extracting and structuring fifteen years of sentencing data directly from UK Ministry of Justice source files — data that had not previously been published in this form. That commitment to original data means our claims are verifiable, our methods can be audited, and our findings cannot be dismissed as derivative.
Our outputs
Research designed to be used, not filed
Parliamentary staff, Senators, and journalists do not have time to read a 200-page academic monograph before a committee vote. Our submissions are built for the legislative timeline — concise enough to be read in a sitting, specific enough to be quoted on the floor, and structured so that recommendations can be acted on immediately.
Our standard
Non-partisan, rigorous, and ready to table
We do not advocate for parties or ideological positions. We identify legislative gaps, document real-world consequences, and recommend specific amendments. Our submission on Bill C-9 drew on data showing that 771 children under 18 were sentenced under comparable UK speech laws between 2010 and 2024 — a figure extracted from Ministry of Justice source files and not previously published. Our submission on Bill C-223 identified statutory language that risks constraining judicial discretion in exactly the cases where it is needed most.
That is the Bearing Institute standard: original evidence, specific recommendations, and a clear path from research to legislative action.
★★★★★
“Good policy needs more than principles—it needs language that can move through the legislative process. We aim to make evidence usable and recommendations implementable.”
