The Current for Nov. 26, 2020
Today on The Current:
As the world waits for a COVID-19 vaccine, the federal government is facing accusations that Canada is at the back of the line, and Canadians will have to wait. Matt Galloway talks to Amir Attaran, a professor of law and public health at the University of Ottawa, who has been warning about getting vaccines to Canadians for months now; and Alan Bernstein, president and CEO of the global research organization CIFAR, and a member of Canada's COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.
Plus, food insecurity has grown in the pandemic, with calls for governments to take the pressure off of charities dealing with the issue and make sure people can put food on the table. We talk to Valerie Tarasuk, a founder of the Food Insecurity Policy Research Team at the University of Toronto, and Paul Taylor, executive director of FoodShare Toronto.
Then, we talk to Scottish politician Monica Lennon about winning her fight to make period products free and available to all in her country. We also hear from Jana Girdauskas of The Period Purse about efforts to end period poverty in Canada.
And in recent years, tens of thousands of people have died in the Mediterranean trying to get to Europe from Africa and the Middle East. Now, many are trying a new route: across the Atlantic to reach Spain's Canary Islands. We talk to Inigo Vila, emergency unit director of the Spanish Red Cross, about the work his organization is doing with people who arrive there.