PHAC

Canada's public health agency says the COVID-19 pandemic drove an increasingly deadly overdose crisis last year that continues to take lives and corrode communities.

The Liberals have accused Parliament of becoming toxic to their minority agenda while the Opposition Conservatives say Canada's institutions are broken under the Trudeau government — finger-pointing that fuels growing speculation voters may soon head to the polls.

The Conservatives are asking that the Public Health Agency of Canada's offices be searched after a public shaming of the agency's president failed to persuade him to turn over unredacted documents related to the firing of two scientists at the country's highest-security laboratory.

Erin O'Toole pulled Conservative MPs from a special national security committee on Thursday, June 17, 2021, accusing the government of using it to cover up an incident that caused two scientists at Canada's highest security laboratory to be fired.

Documents related to the firing of two scientists from the high-security laboratory in Winnipeg, and the transfer of viruses to a research facility in Wuhan are too sensitive to hand over to the special committee on Canada-China relations, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said Monday, June 14, 2021.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin is asking for a judicial review of the decision to remove him as head of Canada's vaccine logistics, alleging political interference by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and two of his cabinet ministers.

A homegrown mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 shows promising results in its first small trial and its maker is hoping to test it directly against the vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech.

A parliamentary committee is ordering the Public Health Agency of Canada to turn over all documents related to the firing of two scientists from Canada's highest-security laboratory and the earlier transfer of viruses to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Canada is scheduled to receive a flood of new COVID-19 vaccine doses this week, with around 3.3 million shots due for delivery from different pharmaceutical companies over the coming days.

In defiance of a House of Commons committee, the president of the Public Health Agency of Canada still won't explain why two government scientists were fired 18 months after being escorted from Canada's highest-security laboratory.

Federal officials are "anxious" over new modelling showing an increase in daily COVID-19 cases, which they say comes at a bad time with several religious holidays nearing, and people wanting to gather with families.

Undocumented workers in Canada fear that getting vaccinated could mean being arrested if someone reports them to police or immigration authorities because of their lack of proper identification, say advocates.

The federal public health agency says it believes Canadians are at low risk of contracting a new type of pneumonia that has killed one person and made dozens sick in central China, but it has issued a warning to travellers to and from the city of Wuhan.