Recording of our virtual town hall on vaccine justice
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
Dear friend,
Like you, here at the Council we’re bracing for the new Omicron variant. Our collective health is jeopardized yet again by the refusal of governments and corporate vaccine producers to ensure that vaccines are available across the globe.
This past Sunday, we organized a virtual town hall to discuss how people in Canada can ensure global access to vaccines. We were joined by the Bolivian Trade Minister, MP Niki Ashton, and researchers and advocates involved in the struggle for vaccine justice.
More than 1,600 of you attended from across Canada. Thank you.
If you missed the town hall, or if you’d like to share it with your friends or family, you can watch a recording of the event here.
Many of you also signed our parliamentary petition calling on the government to stop blocking the manufacturing of generic vaccines in Canada, and to support the temporary suspension of patents on vaccines and other life-saving medicines at the World Trade Organization (WTO). On December 4, we submitted that petition with more than 4,600 signatures. Thanks to your efforts, the Trudeau government is now required to answer for its shameful delay tactics by the end of January 2022.
From Northumberland County in Ontario to PEI, London, Winnipeg, Nanaimo, and Gatineau (to name just a few), Council supporters are organizing to bring the fight for a People’s Vaccine to the grassroots. If you want to get involved, please fill out this form so we can connect you with other people in your area who are getting active on this issue.
GET INVOLVEDOur federal government has sacrificed equitable access to vaccines on the altar of intellectual property rights. In a recent in-depth exposé, I laid out the huge increase in lobbying by vaccine producers during the pandemic. This month, our Co-Executive Director Christina Warner also joined the public calls for a waiver on vaccine patents.
In an op-ed in The Hill Times, co-authored with Ketty Nivyabandi, the Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada, and epidemiologist Dr. Madhukar Pai of McGill University, she argued that Canada’s quiet complicity with Big Pharma has made vaccine inequality worse and heightened the risk we face from new ‘variants of concern’ like Omicron.
The pressure is growing on Canada and other countries to end their obstructionism, and over two-thirds of Canadians support the call to lift protections on vaccine patents at the WTO. It is up to us to turn this passive support into active engagement.
I look forward to working on this exciting and essential struggle with you in the New Year.
In solidarity,
Nik Barry-Shaw
Trade and Privatization Campaigner
The Council of Canadians
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