Lessons from Canada’s COVID-19 Response

Canada took early steps to manage the spread of COVID-19 by closing borders, limiting travel, and instituting lockdowns at the provincial level. Although these early efforts initially succeeded in managing the spread of COVID-19, they failed to prevent a second wave of cases from overwhelming the country’s public health system. The situation became so dire in Canada’s largest province, Ontario, that private long-term care facilities required military support to manage patient care. The Hon. Harjit S. Sajjan, Canada’s Minister of National Defence, will join Juliette Kayyem, Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security and Faculty Director of the Homeland Security Project at Harvard Kennedy School, to discuss these and other experiences in Canada’s response to COVID-19.

This conversation is part of a year-long, virtual discussion series “Crisis Leadership in a Pandemic: Lessons Learned in the Fight Against COVID-19”, sponsored by the Program on Crisis Leadership and the Ash Center.

About the Speaker

Minister Sajjan is a former Lieutenant Colonel in the British Columbia Regiment, with which he participated in four operational deployments. He also spent 11 years as a detective addressing gang crime with the Vancouver Police Department.