I just watched The Fifth Estate report, How Trudeau’s failed vaccine deal with China wasted millions, published on October 14, 2021.

Scott Halpron, who works for the Centre for Vaccinology in Halifax, never got to oversee the trials for a vaccine that Canadian scientists helped to engineer. After over a year of delays, he now acknowledges that the vaccine, which scientists in Canada developed in cooperation with the Chinese company CanSinoBIO, does not have a future in Canada.

From the report we learn that the key to the Canadian/CanSino deal was that the Canadian National Research Council had licensed the National Research Counsel cell line to CanSino. This is Canadian medical technology that’s a building block for vaccines.

The official narrative is that the vaccine wasn’t let through customs in China, as it sat waiting for shipment in a special facility at the airport. It easily passed customs for shipment to Russia, Pakistan, Mexico, Chili, and other countries. Only not to Canada, the country that collaborated in the vaccine’s development.

Halpron says, “Part of Canada’s contribution to the global battle against COVID-19 is that we’re collaborating with a country that’s supplying the vaccine to other places, including emerging nations.”

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, who has worked for the Canadian government and promoted science and technology partnerships between Canada and China was not as kind in her summary. “You would think that vaccines are perfectly innocent science….But in our case CanSino’s vaccine was weaponized by Chinese authorities.”

When The Fifth Estate interviewed Dr. Xeufeng Yu, CEO and co-founder of CanSino, a Canadian citizen and PhD graduate of McGill University, the interview tape was seized by Chinese authorities and released ten days later with half the footage removed. CBC had their own copy and the video shows redacted portions in the documentary.

The procurement of vaccines was needlessly delayed while Canada waited in good faith for the fulfillment of the contract with CanSino, something which would never happen.