The federal Liberals are still in negotiations to get the World Health Organization-led Pandemic Agreement finalized, documents reveal.
“The Pandemic Agreement is still under development,” they stated in their response to an order paper question submitted by Conservative MP, Leslyn Lewis.
The response came from The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). The department further indicated that, if required, they’re willing to change domestic laws.
“As negotiations progress, the Government of Canada will continue to carefully consider its potential impact on our existing domestic laws, policies, and practices and if there is a need to make changes at the domestic level to implement our international obligations.”
This comes five months after countries failed to come to an agreement on the WHO’s international pandemic treaty by a “deadline”; however, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said he wasn’t giving up.
While there was a lot of push for the pandemic treaty toward the end of the lockdowns, many member states of the World Health Assembly refused to sign on, citing issues such as a lack of equity in terms of medical supply access and possible threats to national sovereignty.
Specifically, the original draft of the treaty would allow the WHO to dictate health policy around the world any time a pandemic was declared, including mandating lockdowns, and decide when said pandemic was declared.
Legally-binding
The legally binding nature of the pandemic treaty was a key point of contention, which the WHO reluctantly had to remove from the pact as they became increasingly desperate to have it passed.
In fact, the UK refused to sign on for just that reason.
“Unless the current text is changed and refined, we will not be signing up,” said UK Health Minister Andrew Stephenson.
He added that Britain would only support the treaty if it is “firmly in the United Kingdom’s national interest” and respects national sovereignty.
“Under no circumstances will we allow the WHO to have the power to mandate lockdowns; this would be unthinkable and has never been proposed. Protecting our sovereignty is a British red line,” Stephenson said.
