Vulnerable: The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease known as COVID-19, has infected people in 212 countries so far and on every continent except Antarctica. Vast changes to our home lives, social interactions, government functioning and relations between countries have swept the world in a few months and are difficult to hold in one’s mind at one time. That is why a collaborative effort such as this edited, multidisciplinary collection is needed. This book confronts the vulnerabilities and interconnectedness made visible by the pandemic and its consequences, along with the legal, ethical and policy responses. These include vulnerabilities for people who have been harmed or will be harmed by the virus directly and those harmed by measures taken to slow its relentless march; vulnerabilities exposed in our institutions, governance and legal structures; and vulnerabilities in other countries and at the global level where persistent injustices harm us all. Hopefully, COVID-19 will forces us to deeply reflect on how we govern and our policy priorities; to focus preparedness, precaution, and recovery to include all, not just some. Published in English with some chapters in French.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION Overview of COVID-19: Old and New Vulnerabilities Colleen M. Flood, Vanessa MacDonnell, Jane Philpott, Sophie Thériault and Sridhar Venkatapuram     SECTION A: WHO DOES WHAT? CHALLENGES AND DEMANDS OF CANADIAN FEDERALISM   CHAPTER A-1 Have the Post-SARS Reforms Prepared Us for COVID-19? Mapping the Institutional Landscape Katherine Fierlbeck and Lorian Hardcastle   CHAPTER A-2 COVID-19 and First Nations’ Responses Aimée Craft, Deborah McGregor, and Jeffery Hewitt   CHAPITRE A-3 Réflexions sur la mise en œuvre de la Loi sur la santé publique au Québec dans le contexte de la pandémie de COVID-19 Michelle Giroux   CHAPITRE A-4 La COVID-19 au Canada : le fédéralisme coopératif à pied d’œuvre David Robitaille   CHAPTER A-5 Pandemic Data Sharing: How the Canadian Constitution Has Turned into a Suicide Pact Amir Attaran and Adam R. Houston   CHAPTER A-6 The Federal Emergencies Act: A Hollow Promise in the Face of COVID-19? Colleen M. Flood and Bryan Thomas   CHAPTER A-7 Resisting the Siren’s Call: Emergency Powers, Federalism, and Public Policy Carissima Mathen   CHAPTER A-8 Municipal Power and Democratic Legitimacy in the Time of COVID-19 Alexandra Flynn     SECTION B: MAKING SURE SOMEONE IS ACCOUNTABLE: PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RESPONSIBILITIES   CHAPTER B-1 Ensuring Executive and Legislative Accountability in a Pandemic Vanessa MacDonnell   CHAPTER B-2 Good Governance: Institutions, Processes, and People Mel Cappe   CHAPTER B-3 The Duty to Govern and the Rule of Law in an Emergency Grégoire Webber    CHAPTER B-4 Does Debunking Work? Correcting COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media Timothy Caulfield   CHAPTER B-5 The Media Paradox and the COVID-19 Pandemic Jeffrey Simpson   CHAPTER B-6 Governmental Power and COVID-19: The Limits of Judicial Review Paul Daly   CHAPTER B-7 Liability of the Crown in Times of Pandemic Marie-France Fortin    CHAPTER B-8 Balancing Risk and Reward in the Time of COVID-19: Bridging the Gap Between Public Interest and the “Best Interests of the Corporation” Jennifer A. Quaid     SECTION C: CIVIL LIBERTIES VS. IDEAS OF PUBLIC HEALTH    CHAPTER C-1 Civil Liberties vs. Public Health Colleen M. Flood, Bryan Thomas, and Dr. Kumanan Wilson   CHAPTER C-2 Privacy, Ethics, and Contact-Tracing Apps Teresa Scassa, Jason Millar, and Kelly Bronson   CHAPTER C-3 Should Immunity Licences be an Ingredient in our Policy Response to COVID-19? Daniel Weinstock and Vardit Ravitsky   CHAPTER C-4 The Punitive Impact of Physical Distancing Laws on Homeless People Terry Skolnik   CHAPTER C-5 The Right of Citizens Abroad to Return During a Pandemic Yves Le Bouthillier and Delphine Nakache     SECTION D: EQUITY AND COVID-19   CHAPTER D-1 How Should We Allocate Health and Social Resources During a Pandemic? Sridhar Venkatapuram   CHAPITRE D-2 COVID-19 et âgisme : crise annoncée dans les centres de soins de longue durée et réponse improvisée ? Martine Lagacé, Linda Garcia et Louise Bélanger-Hardy   CHAPTER D-3 Fault Lines: COVID-19, the Charter, and Long-term Care Martha Jackman   CHAPTER D-4 The Front line Defence: Housing and Human Rights in the Time of COVID-19 Leilani Farha and Kaitlin Schwan   CHAPTER D-5 COVID-19 in Canadian Prisons: Policies, Practices and Concerns Adelina Iftene   CHAPTER D-6 Systemic Discrimination in Government Services and Programs and Its Impact on First Nations Peoples During the COVID-19 Pandemic Anne Levesque and Sophie Thériault    CHAPTER D-7 Preventing the Spread of Anti-Asian Racism: Including Critical Race Analysis in a Pandemic Plan Jamie Chai Yun Liew   CHAPTER D-8 Migrant Health in a Time of Pandemic: Fallacies of Us-Versus-Them Y.Y. Brandon Chen   CHAPTER D-9 Not All in This Together: Disability Rights and COVID-19 Tess Sheldon and Ravi Malhotra   CHAPTER D-10 Weighing Public Health and Mental Health Responses to Non-Compliance with Public Health Directives in the Context of Mental Illness Jennifer A. Chandler, Yasmin Khaliq, Mona Gupta, Kwame McKenzie, Simon Hatcher, and Olivia Lee     SECTION E: THIS JOB IS GONNA KILL ME: WORKING AND COVID-19   CHAPTER E-1 Privatization and COVID-19: A Deadly Combination for Nursing Homes Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong, and Ivy Bourgeault   CHAPTER E-2 A View from the Front Lines of a COVID-19 Outbreak Jane Philpott   CHAPTER E-3 Occupational Health and Safety and COVID-19: Whose Rights Come First in a Pandemic? Katherine Lippel   CHAPTER E-4 Risking It All: Providing Patient Care and Whistleblowing During a Pandemic Vanessa Gruben and Louise Bélanger-Hardy   CHAPTER E-5 Worked to the Bone: COVID-19, the Agrifood Labour Force, and the Need for More Compassionate Post-Pandemic Food Systems Sarah Berger Richardson     SECTION F: GLOBAL HEALTH AND GOVERNANCE   CHAPTER F-1 “Flattening the Curve” Through COVID-19 Contagion Containment Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram   CHAPTER F-2 The Plausibility and Resolvability of Legal Claims Against China and WHO under the International Health Regulations (2005) Sam Halabi and Kumanan Wilson    CHAPTER F-3 COVID-19 and Africa: Does “One Size Fit All” in Public Health Intervention? Chidi Oguamanam   CHAPTER F-4 Border Closures: A Pandemic of Symbolic Acts in the Time of COVID-19 Steven J. Hoffman and Patrick Fafard   CHAPTER F-5 COVID-19 and Accountable Artificial Intelligence in a Global Context Céline Castets-Renard and Eleonore Fournier-Tombs   CHAPTER F-6 International Trade, Intellectual Property, and Innovation Policy: Lessons from a Pandemic Jeremy de Beer and E. Richard Gold   CHAPTER F-7 COVID-19 Vaccines as Global Public Goods Jason W. Nickerson and Matthew Herder Biographies

About the Author :
Teresa Scassa (Contributor) Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy and a Full Professor in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa, where she is a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society. Her research addresses digital and data governance issues. She has written widely in the areas of privacy law, data governance, intellectual property law, law and technology, artificial intelligence, and smart cities. She is Co-Editor of the books AI and the Law in Canada (2021), Law and the Sharing Economy (2017), and The Future of Open Data (2022), and Co-Author of Digital Commerce in Canada (2020) and Canadian Intellectual Property Law (2022). Anne Levesque (Contributor) Anne Levesque is Associate Professor in the French Common Law Program at the University of Ottawa. Her research and her publications focus on human rights and public interest litigation. Anne has practiced in the areas of employment, human rights, and public interest law. She has worked with a wide range of equality seeking groups, legal clinics, and non-for-profit organisations on test case litigation, interventions, and law reform initiatives. She studied history and political science before obtaining her law degree from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (French Common Law Program) in 2007, followed by a Master's degree in International Human Rights from Oxford University in 2016. She is one of the lawyers representing the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada pro bono in its human rights complaint leading to a landmark victory in 2016 that affirms the right to equality of over 165,000 First Nations children. Ravi Malhotra (Contributor) Ravi Malhotra is Full Professor in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa. Vanessa Gruben (Contributor) Vanessa Gruben B.Sc.H (Queen’s), LL.B. (Ottawa), LL.M. (Columbia) is Vice Dean (Academic) and Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Common Law and a member of the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. She also leads the Ottawa Hub for Harm Reduction – a multidisciplinary forum for scholars and community organizations who work on innovative harm reduction strategies. She is also co-editor of the 5th edition of Canada’s leading text on health law and policy in Canada, Canadian Health Law and Policy, co-edited with Joanna Erdman and Erin Nelson (LexisNexis, 2017). Professor Gruben teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Health Law and a seminar on Access to Health Care. Sam Halabi (Contributor) Sam Halabi is Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Health, Director of the Center for Transformational Health Law, and Affiliate Researcher at the Center for Global Health Science and Security. He was previously Senior Associate VP for Health Policy and Ethics at Colorado State University as well as Professor and Director of the Center for Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship at the University of Missouri, where he received the Husch Blackwell Award for Distinguished Teaching. Halabi has authored 5 books and over 80 publications on topics such as vaccine deployment, public health ethics, data sharing, and emergency response. Y. Y. Brandon Chen (Contributor) Y. Y. Brandon Chen is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa. Teresa Scassa (Contributor) Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy and a Full Professor in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa, where she is a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society. Her research addresses digital and data governance issues. She has written widely in the areas of privacy law, data governance, intellectual property law, law and technology, artificial intelligence, and smart cities. She is Co-Editor of the books AI and the Law in Canada (2021), Law and the Sharing Economy (2017), and The Future of Open Data (2022), and Co-Author of Digital Commerce in Canada (2020) and Canadian Intellectual Property Law (2022). Anne Levesque (Contributor) Anne Levesque is Associate Professor in the French Common Law Program at the University of Ottawa. Her research and her publications focus on human rights and public interest litigation. Anne has practiced in the areas of employment, human rights, and public interest law. She has worked with a wide range of equality seeking groups, legal clinics, and non-for-profit organisations on test case litigation, interventions, and law reform initiatives. She studied history and political science before obtaining her law degree from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (French Common Law Program) in 2007, followed by a Master's degree in International Human Rights from Oxford University in 2016. She is one of the lawyers representing the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada pro bono in its human rights complaint leading to a landmark victory in 2016 that affirms the right to equality of over 165,000 First Nations children. Ravi Malhotra (Contributor) Ravi Malhotra is Full Professor in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa. Vanessa Gruben (Contributor) Vanessa Gruben B.Sc.H (Queen’s), LL.B. (Ottawa), LL.M. (Columbia) is Vice Dean (Academic) and Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Common Law and a member of the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. She also leads the Ottawa Hub for Harm Reduction – a multidisciplinary forum for scholars and community organizations who work on innovative harm reduction strategies. She is also co-editor of the 5th edition of Canada’s leading text on health law and policy in Canada, Canadian Health Law and Policy, co-edited with Joanna Erdman and Erin Nelson (LexisNexis, 2017). Professor Gruben teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Health Law and a seminar on Access to Health Care. Sam Halabi (Contributor) Sam Halabi is Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Health, Director of the Center for Transformational Health Law, and Affiliate Researcher at the Center for Global Health Science and Security. He was previously Senior Associate VP for Health Policy and Ethics at Colorado State University as well as Professor and Director of the Center for Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship at the University of Missouri, where he received the Husch Blackwell Award for Distinguished Teaching. Halabi has authored 5 books and over 80 publications on topics such as vaccine deployment, public health ethics, data sharing, and emergency response. Y. Y. Brandon Chen (Contributor) Y. Y. Brandon Chen is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa.