Why Canada needs an 'urgent' public inquiry into its COVID response

Some have argued an inquiry is needed to evaluate the effectiveness and harms of lockdowns, vaccine passports, school closures and other measures

More than five years after COVID first emerged, amid rising and falling waves, calls are growing for a public inquiry into Canada’s pandemic response on the scale of the Krever inquiry into the country’s tainted blood scandal of the 1980s.

Not everyone agrees on the focus or details.

Some have argued a no-holds-barred inquiry is urgently needed to evaluate the effectiveness and social harms of lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, vaccine passports, school closures and other far-reaching government mandated infection control policies, some of which were never part of pre-existing pandemic plans.