2021-16

Friday May 7, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 7, 2021

The Political Blame Game

February 6, 2021

For months now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has blamed everyone for Canada’s trickle of COVID-19 vaccines but himself.

Trudeau and his ministers have gone so far as to blame former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney — who was prime minister from 1984 to 1993 — for the privatization, or “the selling off“, of Connaught Laboratories. What he fails to mention is that Connaught Labs didn’t go anywhere. It’s now part of Sanofi Pasteur, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines. The Connaught Campus in Toronto accounts for one-fifth of the company’s global vaccine sales.

Experts in Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical industry — as opposed to the generic pharmaceutical industry — say Trudeau’s attempt to pin the blame on Mulroney or a more recent Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, is ironic, because were it not for Mulroney, the innovative industry likely wouldn’t exist here at all.

March 9, 2016

Paul Lucas, who was president and CEO of GlaxoSmithKline Canada from 1994 to 2012, started speaking out and wrote an opinion piece in the Financial Post after he heard federal Liberal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc being interviewed on CTV’s Power Play with Evan Solomon, saying that GlaxoSmithKline had closed its manufacturing facility for vaccines during Harper’s Conservative government, which is false.

“This facility didn’t close, it’s still producing most of the flu vaccine for Canada on an annual basis,” Lucas said during a recent telephone interview.

“I’ve been very concerned and frankly upset about the lies that are coming from the federal government about this whole (COVID vaccine) file,” says Lucas, who was integral to the production and distribution of the Canadian vaccine for the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. All of the vaccine for that outbreak was produced in the GSK factory in Quebec City.

“Trudeau has badly botched Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine procurement,” states Lucas.

“First, he blamed Harper for his own failings. Then he blamed Mulroney and then he blamed the provinces. Then he actually turned on his own vaccine task force. He blamed them for about a day or two. Then he blamed the companies — Pfizer for delaying the delivery of its vaccines in January,” explains Lucas. (Calgary Herald) 

November 19, 2020

Meanwhile, Ontario Minister of Long-term Care Merrilee Fullerton faced a call from the Opposition to resign her cabinet post on Tuesday, in the wake of two reports that reviewed her ministry’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In recent days, Fullerton has been pressed to explicitly acknowledge whether she feels she shares any responsibility for the more than 3,700 deaths of long-term care residents with COVID-19 in Ontario.

During question period Tuesday, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath asked when Fullerton was made aware that some residents had died of dehydration or basic neglect, which led a tense exchange between the two.

“The premise of your question is bordering on obscene,” Fullerton said. “And the reason why is because all of the ministry, public health, medical officers of health, thousands of people have been working to shore up these homes and they were no match for COVID-19.”

Fullerton said that some long-term care homes became “warzones” within days of the first confirmed cases among residents and staff. 

“What we were doing 24 hours a day was trying to get support to those homes, with an unknown virus that wasn’t fully understood and a shortage of supplies globally,” she added.

May 4, 2021

Fullerton then said the NDP had failed to pressure the previous Liberal government into fixing Ontario’s beleaguered long-term care sector.

“Look at your failure. I was left to pick up the pieces from a devastating 15 years of neglect,” she said. “I will not be spoken to that way by the leader of the opposition that neglected this sector.” 

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk and the Ontario Long-term Care COVID-19 Commission both released their respective reports last week. While the probes examined different aspects of COVID-19’s impact on the long-term care sector, they reached similar conclusions: the ministry was not prepared for a pandemic, in part due to years of inaction to prevent a crisis. (CBC) 

 

Wednesday May 6, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 6, 2021

NACI is right about AstraZeneca. It shouldn’t be ‘unsettling’ to trust the public with uncomfortable information

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is being pilloried for asserting that, while taking the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccine is still generally a good idea, their higher risk for blood clots means that certain Canadians would be better served by waiting for a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

December 11, 2020

Despite high-level accusations that the message is “misleading” or even “dangerous,” NACI is right: Different vaccines obviously carry different risks, and it would be irresponsible not to weigh those risks against the risk of contracting COVID-19. The only reason NACI’s messaging sounds “mixed” or “unsettling” is because Canadian public health authorities have spent this pandemic strenuously avoiding nuance or even the basic notion that the public can be trusted with uncomfortable information.

The controversy began over NACI’s latest vaccine recommendations saying that they “preferentially recommend” mRNA vaccines such as the Pfizer and Moderna shots. NACI drew the distinction because of emerging data showing that, in rare instances, viral vector vaccines such as AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson can potentially pose a risk of blood clots. On Tuesday night, for instance, Alberta confirmed the death of a woman in her 50s due to complications from the AstraZeneca vaccine.

For most Canadians, the life-saving benefits of COVID immunity clearly outstrip any blood clotting risks posed by a viral vector shot. Nevertheless, while NACI said that Canada should continue to roll out as many vaccines as quickly as possible, there may be instances, particularly among young people, in which it’s preferable to sit out the immediate prospect of an AstraZeneca shot in favour of a Pfizer shot down the road.

January 30, 2021

“NACI cautions that in age groups younger than 30 years of age, the benefit of offering a viral vector COVID-19 vaccine instead of waiting for an mRNA vaccine is not a certainty, especially in areas of very low COVID-19 activity,” reads the new recommendations, which also say that “an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine should be preferentially offered to individuals” over 30 unless they prefer to get vaccinated earlier.

David Naylor, a co-chair of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, told CBC on Tuesday morning that it was an “unsettling” message because it “suggests that you got the second-best vaccine.” Infectious disease specialist Abdu Sharkawy tweeted that it was “dangerous” to imply “vaccine superiority.”

While many public health agencies have been free to take a single-minded focus on COVID-19 prevention to the exclusion of other health considerations, NACI’s mission has always been to maximize the benefits of immunization while weighing its potential harms. In NACI’s own words, their mission is to assess “how best to use authorized vaccines to achieve the greatest public health benefits.”

March 31, 2021

Over the last 13 months, Canada has gotten used to public health authorities prescribing blunt pandemic restrictions with little to no explanation as to why. Seldom has a chief medical officer ever gone on TV to explain the latest science on outdoor transmission and then asked their citizens to decide for themselves if a BBQ with friends is worth the risk.

NACI’s approach is different. Rather than follow Ottawa’s line to “take whatever vaccine is offered to you first”, they told the truth: Despite mass immunization being the single most effective way to save lives and end this pandemic, it doesn’t mean every AstraZeneca shot is a good idea.

In saying this, NACI didn’t issue an unequivocal “yay” or “nay” on the safety of AstraZeneca, they instead drafted a detailed risk-assessment to allow the public to figure out for themselves if AstraZeneca now is preferable to Pfizer later. You’re middle-aged and living in a hard-hit area with overwhelmed hospitals? Take the shot. You’re 21, living in Prince Edward Island and you barely leave the house? It might be worth waiting for Pfizer or Moderna.

December 1, 2020

NACI is certainly not an antivax organization. The group is composed of volunteer medical experts who have spent decades studying effective immunization. It was NACI who was instrumental in recommending the four-month gap between vaccine doses that has allowed Canada to maximize its limited supply and significantly push forward the national timeline towards herd immunity.

In a pandemic that has repeatedly seen politicians urge the public to “listen to the science,” NACI is the Platonic ideal of career scientists making recommendations without worrying about political narratives.

And yet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now openly telling Canadians to ignore the NACI recommendation and take the first shot they are offered.

New Brunswick education minister Dominic Cardy took it a step farther, telling his constituents Tuesday to “ignore NACI, ignore anti-masker, ignore the people undermining the faith in science.” (National Post) 

 

Wednesday May 5, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 5, 2021

Being Jason Kenney is the worst job in politics today

May 26, 2006

As former Alberta premier Ralph Klein used to say, the secret to being a successful politician is to figure out which way the parade is going and jump in front of it.

So spare some pity for current Premier Jason Kenney as he tries to straddle two marching bands of public opinion, which are on a nasty collision course over his handling of the pandemic.

In short, Kenney is failing spectacularly in every direction he’s turned – and the result has been the fastest infection surge anywhere in North America coupled with Canada’s loudest public revolt against overdue restrictions to curb the outbreak.

It’s a uniquely tricky business bordering on mission impossible to govern Alberta even in good times, where voters are happiest with the least amount of government in their lives.

As one rural MLA noted many years ago, “My folks think that painting a yellow stripe down the middle of the highway is too much government interference.”

But mix an oil industry meltdown with enterprise-killing lockdowns and hospitals near the breaking point and you create the perfect storm of angry opposition.

January 26, 2021

Closing down businesses, schools and rodeos has sparked outrage and defiance in rural areas, where COVID-19 is not spreading as quickly.

But by heeding the cries of the United Conservative Party’s rural base to go slow on restrictions, the Kenney government has infuriated cities where soaring third-wave infection rates are swamping intensive care units.

Kenney’s challenge has been complicated by an internal revolt of his own MLAs, some still smarting from the absorption of the Wild Rose Party to create the United Progress Conservatives, who have taken a very public stand against restrictions they deem excessive.

During a long news conference on Wednesday, a weary-eyed Kenney shrugged off the internal dissent as merely a welcome exercise in democratic debate.

Sorry, but attacking public health measures designed to save lives is not up for debate and Kenney really needs to send a no-nonsense signal this is not tolerated with a mutineer expulsion or two. (CTV) 

 

Tuesday May 4, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 4, 2021

Ontario government needs to wake up and make nursing homes a top priority

May 16, 2020

The people of Ontario didn’t need two new reports to tell them Doug Ford’s government was missing in action when COVID-19 hit the province’s nursing homes last year.

The deaths of nearly 4,000 long-term-care residents and 11 employees during the pandemic had already spoken for themselves. And that grim message amounted to a scathing indictment of governmental ineptitude at the highest levels. 

Yet for all this, Ontarians really did need Friday’s report from the Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission along with the one from Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk two days earlier. They’re essential for telling us what we should — make that must — do for the sake of the 115,000 of the province’s most vulnerable citizens who live in nursing homes today.

According to the commission, the Ford government was completely without a comprehensive plan to protect nursing homes when the pandemic hit. Then, not only was its response “slow, unco-ordinated and lacking in urgency,” it failed to heed the lessons of the first wave. As a result, more residents died in the second wave than the initial one.

November 19, 2020

For its part, the auditor-general’s report denounced not only the current provincial government but governments stretching back over a decade. Not one of them followed up on the recommendations made by an expert panel after the 2003 SARS outbreak to prepare long-term-care facilities for a future health-care crisis. 

Not one of them addressed the concerns about the litany of long-standing weaknesses that had been identified in the nursing-home system. And so the province’s nursing homes, which consume seven per cent of the health-care budget, became pandemic disaster zones.

For some Ontarians, this may all sound painfully familiar, something they’d just as soon forget after they condemn the current government. 

But these two reports are important for more than putting on the record a precise diagnosis of what went so badly wrong in the province’s nursing homes over the past year. Their greatest, and hopefully most lasting, value will be in the prescription they offer for what should be done now.

May 27, 2020

The best way forward will demand more funding, more and better-paid staff, an end to overcrowded wards, better coordination with the rest of the health-care system and — for goodness sake — a pandemic plan. Ontario also needs a new model for building and managing new nursing homes, and the Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission came up with a promising proposal for one. 

It recommends constructing new homes that are paid for upfront by private investors who receive a return on their capital with profit over time. However the homes will be operated and the residents cared for by a mission-driven organization. It could be public, not-for-profit or for-profit. But the sole focus of those running the homes must be the care of the residents and certainly not returns for investors.

January 27, 2021

What matters now is what the Ford government and the people of this province commit to doing with this and all the other ideas in these reports. Ontario Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton promised Monday to adopt many of the recommendations from the commission’s 332-page report. But what else could she say?

Governments and the public have notoriously short memories. Premier Ford will face many expensive demands for all kinds of changes coming out of this pandemic.

The only way to ensure Ontario’s nursing homes never experience another catastrophe like COVID-19 is to make the homes an absolute, non-negotiable priority. The government will say they are. But only the people of Ontario, the people who vote and pay taxes, can guarantee the government acts. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Saturday May 1, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 1, 2021

‘My recommendations will be implemented’: Louise Arbour prepares to review misconduct in Canada’s military

When faced with the idea of conducting an external review on sexual misconduct in the military — six years after a similar review was completed — retired Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour said her initial impression was: “Seriously? It’s been done.” 

October 18, 2016

Upon reflection, Arbour said she saw an environment in which she could make a lasting contribution, having been given a broader mandate from the federal government than the one handed to retired Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps when she conducted a similar review. 

“I have been given assurances that my recommendations will be implemented,” a point Arbour returned to several times in an interview with the Star on Friday, while acknowledging that “you might think it’s a bit naïve” considering the military’s response so far to the Deschamps review. 

“Six years after the Deschamps report, I think there’s better hope this time that something will come of this…If I was profoundly skeptical and cynical, I wouldn’t be doing this. I really have to believe that there is a window of opportunity.”

Arbour’s external review, announced Thursday by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, was immediately blasted by critics as a deflection tactic by a government and military that have failed to fully implement Deschamps’s recommendations. 

The Conservatives said it was meant to take attention away from ongoing questions about the government’s handling of an allegation against ex-chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance in 2018.

June 13, 2017

Deschamps — who concluded in 2015 that sexual misconduct is “endemic” in the military — told the Star she welcomed Arbour’s appointment, noting her broader mandate and that her review “would not be a mere repetition of what I did.” 

A former justice on the country’s top court, UN high commissioner for human rights, and chief prosecutor at the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Arbour brings a deep knowledge of human rights issues to her new task.

“Maybe the most important part of (Deschamps’s) work was the diagnosis,” Arbour said. “It was really earth shattering, the assessment of the prevalence of this predatory, sexualized culture.” 

Arbour said she understands the frustration of survivors of military sexual violence, both those who have come forward, as well as those who never have due to lack of trust in the system.

“I understand their frustration and possibly their skepticism, about just another review by another justice. I get that,” she said. “I really want to say: Just bear with me. I think moving forward, this might be the right time for the right thing to get done.” 

Unlike Deschamps’s mandate, Arbour has been instructed to come up with recommendations on what external oversight of the armed forces should look like. She will also be studying the military justice system’s “systemic performance” in dealing with sexual misconduct allegations, as well as recruitment and promotion to senior leadership. (Toronto Star)