Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada did great fighting COVID-19, even though death rates were higher than other industrialized countries, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. .“Our experience during COVID, which was a tragedy where every single COVID death was a tragedy, of course we could learn lessons about how to do better,” Freeland told reporters..“But broadly, Canada did pretty well.”.Freeland said Canada did well because it “had a real Team Canada approach.” .A proposal to conduct an inquiry into cabinet’s pandemic management is being stalled in the House of Commons Health Committee. .Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University of Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Centre said Canada’s pandemic death rate was 135.2 cases per 100,000 population. This compares to New Zealand (53 deaths per 100,000), Japan (58), Taiwan (74), Australia (77), Norway (96), Israel (142), Germany (203), Sweden (235), France (254), the United Kingdom (325), and the United States (341). .The House of Commons gave second reading to Bill C-293, sponsored by Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York, ON), to have cabinet establish an advisory committee to review pandemic management..Bill C-293 stalled in committee in April after MPs rejected the internal review as a poor substitute for a public inquiry. .“It’s not independent, it is not transparent,” said NDP MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway, BC)..Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said from the outbreak of the pandemic Canada was a world leader in emergency management. .“Canada is among the best prepared countries in the world,” said Trudeau. .Disclosures showed federal agencies failed to maintain a stockpile of medical supplies. The Prime Minister’s Office warned in an internal email in 2020 Canada “won’t have enough to go around.”.“There is a massive shortage of personal protective equipment,” said the PMO. .Canada might have risen to the occasion in its response to COVID-19, but uncertainty exists, because an inquiry has not been called by the federal government, according to a July 24 editorial from the British Medical Journal (BMJ). .READ MORE: British Medical Journal calls for Canada to launch inquiry into COVID-19 response.“This is a mistake,” said the BMJ. .“There are lessons to learn from Canada’s COVID-19 response to ensure accountability for decisions and actions and to build confidence in the country’s health leadership, which faltered during the pandemic and created a strain on its already beleaguered public health and healthcare systems.”
