In early 2024, Collateral Global launched a Canada Working Group (WG) focused on holistically evaluating the Covid response across the country and providing concrete recommendations for how federal and provincial governments can improve pandemic preparedness and future response.
WG activities will include a series of systematic evidence reviews to collate and analyse the full range of data on:
- The social harms from government infection control policies, including on health, economy, income, education, lifestyle, relationships, community, and governance.
- The effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical and vaccine interventions, including lockdowns, school closures, contact tracing, and mask and vaccine mandates.
- The drivers of decision-making, including emergency laws and the structure of scientific advisory systems.
An initial research symposium, open to the wider academic community and public, is being planned at the University of Toronto for the fall of 2024.
This work builds directly on analyses published in 2024 by CG at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and Western Standard which called for an independent and impartial public inquiry into the Canada Covid response.
No such inquiry has yet been launched in Canada.
CG’s Canada Working Group aims to synthesize the scientific evidence on the Covid pandemic response in Canada to improve evidence-based decision-making, minimize social harms from policy responses, and protect democratic rights during health emergencies.
The WG consists of academic leaders in their respective fields with diverse expertise.
Prof. Douglas Allen, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University, BC.
Dr Itai Bavli, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, British Columbia.
Dr. Ambarish Chandra, Department of Management, University of Toronto, Ontario.
Dr. Claudia Chaufan, MD, School of Health Policy and Management, York University, Ontario.
Prof. Douglas Farrow, School of Religious Studies, McGill University, Quebec.
Prof. Katherine Fierlbeck, Department of Political Science, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia.
Christine Van Geyn, Litigation Director, Canadian Constitutional Foundation.
Prof. Rafael Gomez, Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto, Ontario.
Dr. Ari Joffe, MD, FRCPC, Department of Pediatrics and John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre, University of Alberta, Alberta.
Dr. Duncan Koerber, Department of Communications, Popular Culture and Film, Brock University, Ontario,
Prof. Toula Kourgiantakis, Faculty of Social Work and Criminology, University of Laval, Quebec.
Prof. Trudo Lemmens, Faculty of Law and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Ontario.
Prof. Fiona Miller, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.
Prof. Bruce Pardy, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Ontario.
Dr. Dionne Pohler, School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan.
Dr. Cristian Rangel, Department of Innovation in Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario.
Neil Rau, MD, Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Ontario.
Prof. Claus Rinner, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Ontario.
Richard Schabas, MD, former Chief Medical Officer of Health, Ontario (1987-1997).
Dr. Alison Thompson, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto.
Dr. Anne-Marie Turcotte-Tremblay, Faculty of Nursing, University of Laval, Quebec
Dr. Elaine Wiersma, Department of Health Sciences, Lakehead University, Ontario.
Dr. David Vickers, Centre for Health Informatics, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Alberta.