News Archive

Heidi Paine was a resident physician in one of the hardest hit hospitals in London, England during the early days of the COVID pandemic. She is currently a visiting researcher at CHLPE, where she brings her experiences to bear in thinking about the many facets of COVID's impact on the healthcare system. Read her blog post here...‍

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Health workers are the foundation of all health systems. They account for more than 10% of all employed Canadians and over 2/3 of all health care spending, not including the personal and public cost to their training. That amounts to $175 billion in 2019, or nearly 8% of Canada’s GDP. Nonetheless, health workforce research secures less than 3% of health services and policy research funds, and investments in necessary data infrastructure from governments have not materialized. Canada lags behind comparable OECD countries including the U.K., Australia and the U.S. in terms of health workforce data and digital analytics. The gaps in our knowledge about the health workforce have especially been exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequences of poor health workforce data and science range from sub-optimal health workforce utilization to poor population health outcomes...

Professor Ivy Bourgeault writes in this white paper submitted to the New Digital Research Infrastructure Organization.
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See also a related op-ed by Professor Bourgeault in the Hill Times.
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This commentary addresses the critically important role of health workers in their countries’ more immediate responses to COVID-19 outbreaks, and provides policy recommendations for more sustainable health workforces. Paradoxically, pandemic response plans in country after country often fail to explicitly address health workforce requirements and considerations...

Professor Ivy Bourgeault is first author on this new open-access publication in Human Resources for Health.‍

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Dr. Kumanan Wilson appeared on the Hill Times Hot Room podcast to discuss how the technologies used to schedule and track the rollout are essential to ensuring that the largest healthcare intervention in human history runs smoothly. ‍

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Mariette Brennan along with CHLPE members Kumanan Wilson and Vanessa Gruben are authors of this new paper, available freely on SSRN. Childhood immunization programs are vital for public health. This paper analyzes the constitutionality of religious and conscience belief exemptions in vaccination programs in terms of both routine childhood immunizations and in the case of a COVID-19 vaccine. The paper proposes ways to restructure religious and conscience belief exemptions and provides guidance on how to move childhood immunization programs forward in the COVID-19 era.‍

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Professor Jennifer Chandler is looking for two excellent researchers interested in doing their Masters in Law under her supervision at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law. A research bursary of $15,000 is available for one student to participate in each of:

• Legal Definition of Death in an Age of Techno-Scientific Change
• Presumed Consent (Opt-Out) Systems for Organ Donation

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Registration is now open for Key Policy Issues in Organ Donation & Transplantation, an online conference coming June 17–18. Spanning nine panels over two days with speakers from medicine, law, policy, ethics, and patient partners. We hope to see you there!

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CHLPE is excited to release our annual report for 2019–20! Find out what we've been up to in this black swan of a year.

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Bertram Loeb Research Chair and CHLPE member Jennifer Chandler was part of the international multi-disciplinary team conducting this study under the leadership of Dr. Sonny Dhanani, CHEO. Professor Chandler contributed ethical, legal and social scientific expertise to the project. This work is key to the practice of organ donation after cardiac death, where speculation about the possibility of auto-resuscitation (spontaneous resumption of heartbeat) has led to ethical and legal questions about how long to wait following cardiac arrest before removal of organs for transplantation. Professor Chandler is presently involved in a follow-on study examining neurological activity during the dying process.

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Guillaume Ouellet and Emmanuelle Bernheim write in response to recent columns by Patrick Lagacé on the follow-up of persons found not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder.‍

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CHLPE Advisory Committee member Dr. Peter Liu has been appointed to the 2020 Order of Ontario, the province’s highest honour. Dr. Liu is credited for having raised the international profile of Canadian cardiovascular research through his leadership at top national institutions. Congratulation Dr. Liu!‍

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As treatments for COVID-19 are sought, there also needs to be a stronger stance against promoting unproven medicines. Faculty of Law Ph.D. Candidate Adam Houston writes in African Arguments.‍

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Everyone knows international trips during the COVID-19 pandemic are highly discouraged. But what are Canadians legally allowed—and not allowed—to do when it comes to travelling abroad? The answer is more complicated than you might think. CHLPE's Martha Jackman (Law) contributes (Global News).‍

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In the weeks and months ahead, politicians, public policy experts, academics, businesses, non-profit organizations and the general public will have important choices to make in rebuilding our lives, our societies and the international order. Vanessa MacDonnell, Sophie Thériault, and Sridhar Venkatapuram write in La Presse.‍

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Vaccination certificates will likely be required in a variety of settings. Policy makers must have clear rules for their design and implementation. Colleen M. Flood, Vivek Krishnamurthy, and Kumanan Wilson write in Policy Options.‍

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Making vaccination of healthcare workers mandatory would guard against depletion of the healthcare workforce, and may reduce rates of workers transmitting COVID-19 to their patients. However, such policies have historically been challenged under labour law, and in theory might be challenged under human rights law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Colleen M. Flood, Bryan Thomas, and Kumanan Wilson write in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.‍

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With the first Canadians getting the COVID-19 vaccine this week, the importance of effectively monitoring the rollout of vaccinations is coming to the fore. The government response nicely recognizes the lead role of the provinces in setting priorities for vaccination. This cooperative federalism is wonderful—when it works. However, for anyone with experience in software, databases and statistical analysis, the vaccination monitoring described sounds like a dog’s breakfast. That’s not good enough when lives are on the line. CHLPE's Michael Wolfson (former Assistant Chief Statistician at Statistics Canada) writes in the Globe and Mail.‍

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Also hear Dr. Wolfson in a radio interview:‍

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While doctors removed a rare parasite growing on Cassidy Armstrong's liver before it killed her, she doesn't know if she'll receive the medication she'll need for the rest of her life. Her temporary supply of the drug is running out and she's still waiting for Health Canada to provide long-term access. CHLPE Ph.D. candidate Adam Houston is quoted in CBC News.‍

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Professor Karen Eltis’s work was cited in the November Supreme Court decision Quebec (Attorney General) v. 9147-0732 Québec inc. The court grappled with looking to foreign and international legal sources to aid in interpreting the Canadian Charter’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. In doing so, it looked to Karen Eltis’s work on comparative constitutional law and the “living tree” approach to Charter interpretation.‍

Read McCarthy Tetrault’s summary of the case >

Professor Patrick Fafard (Public Policy) was interviewed by CBC Radio in Calgary about the role and powers of the Chief Medical Officer of Health for Alberta, and how her role compares to that of her counterparts in other countries. Does Dr. Deena Hinshaw have the power to lock the province down? Or is that Premier Kenney's call in the end?‍

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David Sweanor, Chair of CHLPE's External Advisory Committee and the first lawyer globally to work full-time in public policy advocacy against big tobacco, recently testified before the Parliament of Australia's Select Committee on Tobacco Harm Reduction. The brief transcript makes for an interesting conversation about the disruptive effect of vaping technologies on big tobacco companies:‍

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Canada has pre-ordered far more COVID-19 vaccine per capita, and from more potential suppliers, than any other country. And that includes the two manufacturers—Pifzer and Moderna—that recently reported promising results on the effectiveness of their products. But to international development organizations, Canada’s accomplishment is something else—a sign of how rich countries are “hoarding” coronavirus vaccine in a way that will deprive poorer nations for months or years. The moral question aside, they argue that that’s a self-defeating strategy given the risk that outbreaks will continue to occur in Canada until all countries have been sufficiently immunized. CHLPE's Jason Nickerson is cited in the National Post.‍

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Jason Nickerson also recently appeared on TVO's The Agenda – "Tracking Canada’s Vaccine Race":‍

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...and before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs as part of their study on Vulnerabilities Created and Exacerbated by the COVID-19 Pandemic:‍

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The COVID-19 vaccine rollout will be one of the largest and most complex health initiatives in Canadian history. The CANImmunize app, brainchild of CHLPE's Dr. Kumanan Wilson, is poised to help monitor the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines while also allowing Canadians to easily store their vaccination history on their phones. Read more here:‍

CTV News

Ottawa Business Journal ‍

www.canimmunize.ca

On November 12 and 13 the Ottawa Hub for Harm Reduction and CHLPE hosted First, Do Less Harm, a two-day online conference on the law, policy, and ethics of harm reduction in areas including opioids, cannabis, tobacco, and others. Speakers were drawn both from universities and medical and front line harm reduction organizations. A special thanks to Professor Vanessa Gruben (Law), Director of the Hub! Videos of all panels are currently available at www.ottawahealthlaw.ca/pastevents.