The opening sentences of Irvin Studin’s Sept. 17, 2026 opinion piece, “Allison Inquiry must now lead to resignations and full public inquiry” immediately resonated with me.
History notes many countries that have lost their minds in periods of emergency. And that even the sanest of societies can, under pressure and panic, preside over catastrophes once presumed unthinkable.
Studin—a Canadian policy thinker, academic, publisher, and former high-level government official—knows his 20th century history, and with these opening two sentences, he expressed the essence of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Canada and every other country in the West lost their minds during the (purported or proclaimed) emergency of the pandemic.
According to an array of public records, Studin was born in Rome in 1976 to a Russian-Jewish family from Odessa and grew up in the Toronto area. He is a Rhodes Scholar (Oxford, PPE), holds degrees from York University’s Schulich School of Business, the LSE, and a PhD in constitutional law from Osgoode Hall (Governor General’s Gold Medal; Trudeau Scholar). He played varsity soccer at York (captain, two-time All-Canadian) and Oxford, and briefly professionally with the Toronto Lynx
He worked in the Privy Council Office in Ottawa and Australia’s Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, helping write Canada’s 2004 national security policy and Australia’s 2006 counter-terrorism policy. He later taught public policy (including at the University of Toronto), founded Global Brief magazine, and is president of the think tank Institute for 21st Century Questions. He chairs the Worldwide Commission to Educate All Kids (Post-Pandemic), focused on children who left education entirely during school closures; that work led to a 2025 Nobel Peace Prize nomination. He briefly explored a 2020 Conservative leadership bid.
Studin emphasizes that Canada stopped thinking during the pandemic and treated vaccination and restrictions as ends in themselves rather than tools subject to cost-benefit analysis.
His opinion piece argues the COVID-19 mRNA program was “the biggest health policy mistake in Canadian history at best, or a crime against humanity at worst.” He points out that the Allison hearings showed the program injured tens of thousands and killed thousands of otherwise healthy Canadians, including young people and athletes. His piece cites cases such as 17-year-old hockey player Sean Hartman and says officials continued to advocate the shots even after first-dose injuries.
His main demands:
Stop all COVID-19 mRNA vaccination in Canada immediately.
End remaining mandates or recommendations tying vaccination to access.
Resignations of remaining medical officers of health, starting with Ontario’s Kieran Moore (a call he first made in the Sun in 2021 over myocarditis risk in young males and pediatric vaccination).
Criminal investigations and civil actions, citing the precedents of the tainted-blood scandal and Krever Commission.
A full public inquiry called by the prime minister.
Given Studin’s distinction and high-profile in Canadian public affairs, his column may indicate a wind shift in Canada.
This was a crime against humanity, right down to pharmacists to school boards, local government. Nurses, doctors, business owners. There must be accountability for these poor people that have life altering conditions.
As a Canadian, I will say accurate information was not given during covid. The true safety risks were never given. The dangerous of the mRNA gene therapeutics were not given. The accurate number of shot injuried were not given.
It speaks volumes when people are given shots that should have never been in the market.