iPolitics By Charlie Pinkerton. Published on Jan 26, 2021 12:57pm The Chinese embassy in Ottawa (Jolson Lim/iPolitics)
The federal government found out that the Chinese government was interfering with Canada’s plan to test and possibly produce a COVID-19 vaccine made by a Chinese company just days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the deal, according to newly released government documents.
The agreement between the Canadian government and CanSino Biologics Inc. would have made the latter the first company to conduct clinical trials for a COVID vaccine in Canada. It was also the first deal through which Canada could have secured a vaccine supply. It wasn’t until three months later and after Trudeau announced additional vaccine deals with two other pharmaceutical companies that his government conceded that its deal with CanSino was dead.