Jury still out on whether 2020’s COVID tragedy will lead to a better post-pandemic world
OTTAWA—The year 2020: not a great year for the human race. It will be remembered in the long run as one of a series of momentous, mostly destructive events in the past century. There’s 1929, when the stock-market crash kicked off the Great Depression; the 1939-40 aggression of Germany under Hitler; the end of the Second […]
Time for all federal parties to put partisan politics aside for now and focus solely on COVID-19
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were reduced to a minority government in the 2019 federal election. That minority status should continue until real policy differences between the major parties force them apart. When Canadians don’t give a majority mandate to one party, the simple message to all parties is that they want them to work […]
Trudeau offers assurances, urges vigilance, and announces 500,000 Pfizer shots in January
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried to strike a balance Friday between caution and reassurance as he spoke to Canadians heading into the holidays. He urged Canadians to remain mindful of their part in stamping out COVID-19’s spread with much of the country gripped by the second wave, and also promised 500,000 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in the […]
Liberal elections bill shows ‘disdain’ for parliamentary process, say Conservative MPs with committee study not complete
The government’s tabling of a bill to make temporary election law changes in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic before a committee charged with studying the matter finished its work is an example of the “disdain” the Liberals have for the parliamentary process, say Conservative members of the House Affairs Committee. Queen’s Privy Council President […]
Bring back core funding for women’s groups, say MPs as new report warns sector at risk of ‘financial devastation’
Canada should return core funding to women’s groups, say MPs after a report warns the sector faces “financial devastation,” with organizations struggling to stay in operation under the weight of the pandemic’s gendered impact. The report, released Tuesday, said a survey of women-serving agencies and equity-seeking organizations shows more than half of the sector has […]
COVID-19 document disclosure promise not kept
Millions of pages of federal pandemic records the Trudeau government was ordered to hand over by the end of November or by the latest, Dec. 7, 2020, have not been produced. Instead, after the House of Commons adjourned Dec. 11, records obtained from the clerk of the House Health Committee, Jean-François Pagé, indicate that fewer […]
There are lessons to be learned from this annus horribilis
OTTAWA—It is not an understatement to say 2020 has been a year like no other for almost all of us. Since March, we have all been in the clutches of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many just want it to be 2021, but we still should not wish time away, particularly as this annus horribilis ends, as […]
Conservatives rushing for the back of the truth line
CALGARY—As we round out the end of this traumatic year and look forward to a depressing Christmas and New Year’s, we are reminded that the appearance of a COVID-19 vaccine has brought with it one of the most insidious villains of our time: disinformation. Jane Lytvynenko of Buzzfeed News, whose reporting on misinformation, disinformation, and […]
Anti-vaxxers are the biggest threat in fighting COVID-19
MONTREAL—In July of 1997, I was in Geneva, Switzerland, working for the UN’s Children’s Vaccine Initiative (CVI), led by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. It later morphed into the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), funded by Bill and Melinda Gates to the tune of more than $1-billion. I was asked to craft […]
New research highlights anxiety, stress on MP, Senate staff during COVID-19
Work as a political staffer is never easy, and recent research by Carleton University professor Paul Wilson exploring the experience of staff during COVID-19 found that, despite much parliamentary work slowing down, the pandemic exacerbated the usual stresses, with a majority of staff working longer hours, fielding increased calls and requests from constituents, all while […]
