Vulnerable: The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19 ed. by Colleen M. Flood et al. (review)

Vulnerable is an edited collection of forty-three papers that cover six important themes related to the broad and significant social, legal, economic, and health impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Although many of the contributions in this collection are grounded in Canadian law and policy, the collection as a whole reaches far beyond the local by recognizing the need for co-ordinated global policy responses to better manage the pandemic. The six themes explored are: federalism and governance, accountability, civil liberties, equity, labour, and global health. Before diving deeper, it is important to offer some broader context about what really makes this collection special.

The World Health Organization first declared COVID-19 to be a global health pandemic on March 11, 2020. A mere eight weeks passed before the editors of this collection recognized a need, came together, conceptualized, coordinated and found a multi-disciplinary group of contributors. Those contributors then wrote original papers that were edited and sent to print on July 14, 2020, just eight weeks after the project began. For academics whose papers sometimes sit in peer review for months, this timeline seems almost too short to be true. Vulnerable accordingly stands as a triumphant testament to a committed team of sixty-nine highly motivated contributors, many of whom were likely living though upheaval in their personal lives while researching and writing their chapters in the midst of a global pandemic.

This pandemic has certainly revealed the vulnerabilities that exist within different communities, but it has also caused new ones to emerge. Unsurprisingly then, an examination of vulnerability is the organizing theme throughout this collection. Given the importance of the subject matter, the book has been made open access and is completely free to download. The editors have also been relentless in promoting Vulnerable through social media and have hosted several events to raise awareness and engage a broader audience. It has even been made clear throughout these promotional efforts that this collection is not an exhaustive examination of every legal, policy and ethical issue related to the COVID-19 pandemic that is worthy of sustained in-depth analysis. Likewise, this review can also not do justice to the breadth of important topics examined in this timely collection.

Each of Vulnerable’s six sections begins with a larger introductory chapter, which is followed by shorter contributions. Section A focuses on topics related to Federalism and governance. Despite warnings by the Auditor General of Canada in 2008 and the World Health Organization in 2019, dysfunctional national health data sharing strategies have persisted. This dysfunction has limited Canada’s ability to develop optimal data-driven responses to the pandemic. Author Amir Attaran argues that the federal government is dropping the ball by not fully leveraging the public health tools that could make national data sharing mandatory. That being said, David Robitaille points out that a lack of interprovincial cooperation is not necessarily fatal to good public health responses, given the powers local governments can exercise to help manage a pandemic.

With respect to First Nations communities, there is an ongoing wrangling between the federal and provincial levels of government to determine who is responsible for providing assistance and what the limits of that responsibility are. This wrangling has led to delays and even outright inaction, which has in turn forced many First Nations (who themselves have no power of taxation) to implement public health measures that have often been more restrictive than those implemented by the provincial governments.

Section B focuses on the challenge of accountability. Not only did Canada’s Prime Minister have to self-isolate for two weeks early on in the pandemic, but massive spending programs were being implemented and parliament was not sitting during that time. Consider as well that courts across the country were forced to reduce their caseloads while moving online to ensure public safety...