Brandon Trask News Archive

April 14, 2021 — 
This year, Faculty of Law professors have been engaging prolifically in national conversations about COVID-19, Indigenous rights, Civil Liberties and Charter Rights among other important topics. Here is a compilation of some of their writings published in and for such public arenas as newspapers and made available to Canadians beyond academia.

March 31, 2021 — 
Law professor Colleen M. Flood argues vaccine passports will be forced up on society and governments must regulate their use. “But wholesale opposition to vaccine passports will merely permit a Wild West to emerge with differing standards that don’t sufficiently protect against discrimination or attend to privacy and fraudulent use concerns,” Flood writes. Law professor Brandon Trask says such passports have no place in Canada. “One of the costs of living in a democracy is that our fellow citizens may do things other than we wish they would. In the end, this is a small price to pay for all the benefits that flow from having meaningful rights,” Trask writes.

March 23, 2021 — 
With governments working to roll out COVID-19 vaccines more broadly, some Canadian jurisdictions are considering “vaccine passports,” which would be proof that the holder has been vaccinated. These documents would be intended to facilitate international travel. But we must be vigilant against any efforts to deploy them domestically that would discriminate against people who have not been inoculated.

February 10, 2021 — 
Ontario’s Critical Care COVID Command Centre recently released an “emergency standard of care for major surge” protocol, which is intended to “save the most lives in the most ethical manner possible” if the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to overwhelm hospitals.