Our #StopTheDeadlyDivide campaign focuses on the urgent need to work together to find ways to prevent the world’s progress from backsliding during the COVID-19 crisis. Over the course of the past year, we have seen nation states engage in a race to the bottom to get their hands on precious COVID-19 vaccines first.
This “me first” approach will prolong the pandemic, resulting in more lives lost and catastrophic impacts in economic and social disruption. The world's poorest and most vulnerable living in low-income countries are most at risk.
minister \ ˈminəstər\
: a head of a government department
Write an email to the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, Mary Ng (Mary.Ng@international.gc.ca) about why Canada must support the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver currently tabled at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Refer to the January 15, 2021 Supplementary Mandate Letter sent to her by Prime Minister Trudeau to reiterate why it is critical that Canada support the TRIPS waiver so that countries around the world can start to manufacture the life-saving vaccine that will help the entire world recover from the pandemic:
“With the support of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, continue to strengthen and diversify Canada’s trade partnerships and reinforce global supply chains, including for medical supplies and other critical goods.”
Explain that with global demand surging and supply limited, a deadly divide in access to vaccines is widening by the day. While immunization campaigns are rolling out in many high-income countries, low-income countries are predicted to not see mass immunization against COVID-19 for years to come.
The ask: Canada must support the TRIPS intellectual property waiver tabled at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and put people’s lives ahead of publicly-subsidized pharmaceutical company profits.
