As a new year dawned, the government’s throne-speech commitments, unfurled just weeks earlier, were grabbing headlines and galvanizing the attention of federal policy-makers.
Then came the most serious public health crisis in recent memory. The Trudeau government’s planned gun-control measures, assisted-dying legislation and efforts to advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples are taking a back seat, at least for now, to the all-consuming fight to help people weather COVID-19.
Even the federal budget, a fixture of the late-winter parliamentary agenda, has been delayed indefinitely as the virus monopolizes time and resources.