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Results: 61 - 75 of 196
Lianna McDonald
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Lianna McDonald
2021-02-22 12:22
I would add in here, to echo John's comments, that it is very challenging. I would say, though, that Australia has done some very impressive work in this space. Also, as was mentioned by Daniel, the U.K. government has really taken a leadership role with its “Online Harms White Paper” and looking towards a different type of schema to look at this. I do want to make just one point that really has not been discussed here at all, and that goes back to the issue of accountability and oversight.
Again, we are still relying on systems under which it's up to the companies to come forward and to report, so we don't know the scale of the problem. We don't know. There's no oversight to know if they're in fact reporting what they ought to be reporting, and it puts the users or survivors and victims in an unfair situation when they're dependent on these companies to do the right thing. While we looked at what is available to us, we also have to raise the important question about accountability and what oversight is tied to what these companies are or are not doing.
View Cathay Wagantall Profile
CPC (SK)
Thank you for your work.
However, I can't help but think there has to be a way with MindGeek to work together internationally—because this is an international issue—to provide that capability to have jurisdiction absolutely wherever you need it for something like this.
Why is that not something that has been being worked on internationally, or is it? What needs to be done in terms of Canada's responsibility in enabling us to get over that hurdle? Clearly, it's a method of avoidance.
Marie-Claude Arsenault
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Marie-Claude Arsenault
2021-02-22 13:20
Within the Virtual Global Taskforce, pretty well all the countries, or many of them, have similar challenges with jurisdictional issues. We are working on identifying all these law enforcement challenges. As part of the VGT, we have industry and NGOs that are our partners. We also work with other NGOs that have some influence internationally to advocate for some of the challenges.
Perhaps Mr. Wong could speak from the international side on legislative groups that are also looking at these issues.
View Cathay Wagantall Profile
CPC (SK)
Thank you.
I'd like to expand a bit, however, your comment that you're working on it internationally. I know of NGOs that have reported scenarios like this to me and said that as the police force, it's very difficult to function in this environment because you don't have the jurisdictional support you need. It's supposedly been worked on for a very long time, yet we have a situation here where we've had only 120 reports since 2020 and that type of thing.
What has been accomplished, or what is being done that it's taking so long to get any kind of co-operation internationally to deal with this horrific situation?
Marie-Claude Arsenault
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Marie-Claude Arsenault
2021-02-22 13:22
The co-operation is there amongst all international partners when it comes to the exchange of information, the exchange of intelligence, sharing our best practices, and so on. On the legislative side, our group of law enforcement does not have control in terms of changing the laws—
View Luc Thériault Profile
BQ (QC)
View Luc Thériault Profile
2021-02-22 12:59
Thank you.
Dr. Bernstein, the way out of this pandemic is through global vaccination. Ninety-two percent of vaccines are currently administered in rich countries. You said that these rich countries have to accept that 5% to 10% of their vaccine supply should go to less developed countries, those that cannot afford to enter into bilateral agreements with vaccine suppliers.
What do you think about Canada's draw on the COVAX vaccine bank?
Alan Bernstein
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Alan Bernstein
2021-02-22 13:00
Sure.
I think it is important that Canada be a major contributor to both COVAX and other mechanisms for vaccines for the developing world. Until the U.S. came in I think we were the largest contributor per capita to the COVAX facility. But it's in our interest to make sure that everyone in the world is vaccinated as quickly as possible. Dr. Sharma alluded to the variants that inevitably have appeared, and those variants will appear anywhere. The number of variants that appear will be directly proportional to the size of the virus pool in the world. So it's in our interests here in Canada to shrink that virus pool as quickly as possible, and the best way to do that is to vaccinate the whole world as quickly as possible.
I think Canada has a moral as well as a practical reason for donating vaccines to the rest of the world, either through COVAX or through other mechanisms: directly to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, or through the WHO. I think that is very important.
At least on paper, Canada has purchased more vaccines per capita than any other country. If all those vaccines are eventually approved by Health Canada, we will have the opportunity to donate a lot of doses to COVAX or to the developing world directly. I think the important point is that we step up and donate those vaccines to the developing world. Thank you.
View Don Davies Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Dr. Bernstein, just following up on that, there's a question of timing, as well, isn't there? Do you think that rich countries should be vaccinating their young and healthy before frontline health care workers and vulnerable people are vaccinated in developing countries?
Alan Bernstein
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Alan Bernstein
2021-02-22 13:03
Right now, the vaccines have not yet been approved for young people here in Canada. Again, I think there is a good argument, both a moral argument and a practical one, that the G7 countries, including Canada, donate vaccines to the developing world initially for frontline health care workers, as you have suggested, Mr. Davies.
View Maninder Sidhu Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for joining us today.
For either Mr. Turnbull or Mr. Robinson, what impact would you say the Boeing MAX file has had with regard to international co-operation by different aviation authorities?
Nicholas Robinson
View Nicholas Robinson Profile
Nicholas Robinson
2021-02-16 17:57
I'll go back to my opening remarks, in that the coordination and collaboration between international authorities has been significant from the beginning of this process. The FAA are the certifying authority, but as my colleague Dave pointed out in some of the changes that were just outlined there, I would say that the other three authorities were also leaders in ensuring that those changes were made to that aircraft.
The four authorities together continuously meet and met to discuss this aircraft, to discuss the review of the aircraft and to exchange ideas of the aircraft. They met within the group of four but also bilaterally and trilaterally at times.
Now that we are committed to looking at the reviews—particularly, I would say, the joint authorities technical review that we as well as other certification authorities participated on—we're committed to working with the United States in making sure that those recommendations are implemented in a consistent manner that has harmony across the four authorities.
View Majid Jowhari Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, but now that we're going to Mr. Lucas, let me ask another question.
I now understand the rolling submission and the close collaboration that our government's health organization has with the manufacturer. Did we pursue similar working relationships with other jurisdictions' health organizations? Some of them have approved some of these vaccines ahead of us. Is there any type of collaboration going on between those health bodies and ours to be able to piggyback and to get some of these vaccines like AstraZeneca, Janssen and the other ones approved much faster?
View Patty Hajdu Profile
Lib. (ON)
Again, I will start and then turn to Deputy Minister Lucas for gap filling, if you will.
Yes, there is collaboration with other regulatory bodies, and data, information and analysis are shared as appropriate. Of course, each country does its own approvals, and Canada is considered a gold standard regulator. This is also beneficial to the pharmaceutical companies, because, of course, when they get approved in Canada, many other smaller countries that don't have the same level of capacity to do their own review look at Canada as a stamp of approval, if you will. That's quite valuable to the manufacturer as well. We collaborate on a regular basis with places like the EU, the FDA and others that have long-standing relationships with Health Canada regulators.
I'll turn to Deputy Minister Lucas for a few more words.
Stephen Lucas
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Stephen Lucas
2021-02-02 11:32
Yes, indeed, as part of our independent scientific review, we have continued to work with both international regulators and international regulatory forums. Canada played a critical role in the establishment of the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities and has played roles co-chairing committees pertinent to the review of vaccines for COVID. We worked through a consortium with Switzerland, the U.K., Australia and Singapore, and also, as Minister Hajdu noted, with the European Medicines Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Through these efforts, we're able to identify opportunities to help strengthen our independent review, but at the end of the day, we make those decisions based on the evidence provided to us and on our benchmarks of safety, quality and efficacy.
View Luc Thériault Profile
BQ (QC)
View Luc Thériault Profile
2021-02-01 11:46
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all the witnesses for their participation.
Professor Gagnon, thank you for accepting the committee's invitation.
You mentioned something that we on the Standing Committee on Health noticed as well. At the beginning of the pandemic, all the experts and researchers told us about the extraordinary level of co-operation in the effort to find and develop a vaccine. The co-operation was certainly there.
The vaccine race has been on since August. Now that it's time to procure the vaccines, all that fine global co-operation and information sharing has gone out the window, and for good. We are nevertheless in the midst of a global pandemic, so borders are problematic. Until everyone on the planet is vaccinated, the problems caused by variants are not going anywhere.
You said this earlier, and you've talked about it in your articles: this way of doing things is disastrous. You said Canada had picked its side.
What could we do differently to achieve better public health results through a more unified position?
Results: 61 - 75 of 196 | Page: 5 of 14

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