Cross-Canada Educators Rank-and-File Committee hears report on pandemic from Dr. Benjamin Mateus World Socialist Web Site on the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Mateus writes on the science of the virus, the development of vaccines and the use of pseudo-scientific arguments by the political establishment to legitimize the reopening of schools and the economy. Following his report, participants seized the opportunity to ask him questions about the pandemic’s progression in Canada and globally. Protest by teachers at Montreal high school against the Quebec government’s reckless push for in-class instruction. (Photo Credit: Robert Green) The meeting took place under concerning circumstances. Despite Canada having recorded over 10,000 fatalities from the virus just in the first 20 weeks of 2021, the country’s provincial governments, with the full support of the Justin Trudeau-led federal government, are using slowly increasing (but as yet far from exemplary) vaccination rates as an excuse to lift the totally inadequate restrictions implemented in recent months as the pandemic’s second and third waves ran rampant.