The senior Health Canada official who had final authority for the approval of the COVID-19 vaccines says the surveillance system to monitor its adverse events falls far short on providing an accurate picture of the situation. “We do expect there to be a lot of underreporting,” said Dr. Celia Lourenco, acting associate assistant deputy minister…

A briefing from federal health authorities setting out the rationale for imposing vaccine mandates in the fall of 2021 raised ethical concerns and acknowledged that the vaccinated may transmit COVID-19 as much as the unvaccinated, but it nevertheless encouraged mandatory injections. “There is some emerging evidence documenting that COVID-19 cases (Delta variant) in fully vaccinated…

A briefing document from federal health authorities setting out the rationale for imposing vaccine mandates in the fall of 2021 raised ethical concerns and acknowledged that the vaccinated may transmit COVID-19 as much as the unvaccinated, but it nevertheless encouraged mandatory injections. “There is some emerging evidence documenting that COVID-19 cases (Delta variant) in fully…

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) threw away around 5.4 million N95 masks just a year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit—at which time Canada experienced a shortage of the masks—according to an internal audit. The largest-scale disposal of N95 masks came after PHAC closed three private medical supply warehouses in 2019, says a federal report…

A plan by the Public Health Agency of Canada to hire a social media intelligence company to collect data on individuals who are vaccine hesitant has been shelved. The agency had posted an Advance Contract Award Notice on the government’s tender notices portal in December, indicating that U.K.-based firm Pulsar Platform would be awarded the…

A plan by the Public Health Agency of Canada to hire a social media intelligence company to collect data on individuals who are vaccine hesitant has been shelved. The agency had posted an Advance Contract Award Notice on the government’s tender notices portal in December, indicating that U.K.-based firm Pulsar Platform would be awarded the…

The federal government bureaucrat who wrote the policy that prevented unvaccinated Canadians from flying or travelling by train said she has no recollection of health officials recommending a vaccine mandate for travel, according to court documents. Jennifer Little, director general of COVID Recovery at Transport Canada, made the comments on June 9 and 10 while…

The Public Health Agency of Canada says COVID-19 restrictions at the border will remain in place for at least another month. The agency made the announcement on Twitter, the day after Parliament voted down a Conservative opposition motion to revert to pre-pandemic rules for travel. Several pandemic restrictions are in place at Canadian airports and…

The government’s program using cellphone mobility data from Canadians to inform public health policies was under review again on Feb. 28 by the House ethics committee, with witnesses arguing that while privacy might have been respected, transparency was lacking and the country’s privacy laws are outdated. Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of…

The national program that allows Canadians to report serious and permanent injuries after receiving a Health Canada-authorized vaccine—including COVID-19 vaccines—has released new figures on how many people have reported and requested compensation. The Vaccine Injury Support Program, which was announced by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) last December and officially launched in June,…