The talk of the day was vaccines, and when Canada might see them – which might be later than some other countries because we lack domestic manufacturing capacity in this country – and this made everyone go crazy. That, and the fact that they are howling that the Americans may start getting vaccinations immediately after the FDA is set to decide on vaccine trials on December 10^th – which is a pretty big assumption that they will get approval on that day. (We’ll see about how much longer it takes Health Canada to complete their own authorisation process, though they are currently engaged in a “rolling authorisation” process on the three main candidates). And they are still negotiating final rollout with the provinces, who also don’t seem to have their distribution plans finalised either.

And to be a bit more clear, we have some vaccine manufacturing capability in this country, but not the kind for the kind of vaccines that Pfizer and Moderna are set to produce – and yes, this government has invested in boosting that capacity in Canada, including building a new facility at the University of Saskatchewan, but those take time to get built and up to speed. But as this was being discussed, I was reminded that well over a decade ago, Canada had proposed to build a new vaccine pilot lot production facility as part of the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And then there was political interference in the Harper Cabinet, in particular from Vic Toews, who wanted a Level-5 Lab built in Winnipeg instead, and then neither happened, and all of the Gates Foundation money got pissed away funding small projects here and there that didn’t amount to any meaningful contribution overall. (My reporting on Toews’ interference here, as well as the refusal by Toews and two other ministers to appear at committee to answer questions on what happened with the killing the CHVI, while officials gave contradictory evidence here). And this kind of facility would definitely have been of use for the kind of situation that we find ourselves in, but lo, the Conservatives killed it (and the Gates Foundation covered for them after they did). And here we are, building this capacity over a decade too late.

In other COVID news around the country, after sitting on their new rapid testing kits for weeks, the Ford government in Ontario has finally decided how they’re going to roll them out, which you would think they should have thought of beforehand. Over in Alberta, Jason Kenney announced – after a long preamble about how hard it was to make this decision – a state of public health emergency and some tougher restrictions in the province which are not a full lockdown, and which doctors are already saying won’t do enough to curb the exponential growth of new infections. In other words, Lockdown Lite™ or Mockdown (credit to Lindsay Tedds for that one). Because Kenney insists the consequences of a lockdown are worse than all of the deaths that are happening, and a bogus reading of the Charter implications (which clearly allow for these kinds of restrictions in a time like this). That means that Alberta’s infections will keep rising because Kenney refused to take appropriate action, and he’ll blame Ottawa, and everyone else for his inaction, because that’s what Jason Kenney does.

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1331385270529269762

Smart thoughts here from Eric. Get to the last tweet. For context, here's the SCC decision from R v Oakes that forms the test for section 1 of the Charter. https://t.co/Jfm0o9FfB2 pic.twitter.com/sLHpHBjlZ8

— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) November 25, 2020

Good reads:

• The Canada Energy Regulator predicts that the current path toward GHG reductions could mean that we may not need both the Keystone XL and TMX pipelines.
• Some 4400 would-be asylum seekers have been turned back from the Canadian border since 2016, most of them in the first year of the Trump presidency.
• The Clerk of the Privy Council was at finance committee to talk about why he ordered some redactions in those WE documents, mostly for Cabinet confidence.
• Former ambassador to China John McCallum appeared at the special Canada-China committee to discuss his efforts to free the two Michaels in Chinese custody.
• The Bloc are pushing a bill to ban any future concessions to the Supply Management system in future trade negotiations.
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at three ways in which the government could yet fall before the year is out.
• Susan Delacourt notes that Trudeau can’t use the excuse of Trump protectionism for the fact that we gave up our own domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity.
• My column looks at the pressure to turn the Environment Commissioner into a fully independent Officer of Parliament, and why that is a bad thing for parliament.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a chat with Aaron Reynolds of Effin’ Birds and Swear Trek fame, about algorithms policing social media and how it can affect people.

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