Dismantling the status quo: promoting policies for health, well-being and equity: an IUHPE2022 prelude

The next international gathering of the global health promotion family will be in Montreal, in May 2022. The 24th IUHPE conference is themed ‘Promoting policies for health, well-being and equity’. Conference organizers have decided to transcend the ‘usual suspects’ rhetoric and frame a conference program that truly challenges these key notions for health promotion. In this contribution, members of the Canadian National and Global Scientific Committees reflect on the state of play and the opportunities ahead. We propose three themes as follows: (a) breaking news (the promise and opportunities for disruptions and tipping points, whether from pandemic health challenges, climate change, geopolitical shifts, social unrest or technological promise); (b) breaking free (from world-views that favor only market solutions, divisions between North and South, toward emancipatory decolonizing practices and knowledge systems); and (c) breaking through (disciplines, silos, boundaries and identities engrained in our practices and understandings for innovation.)