In October 2020, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars established a Task Force on Public Health and the U.S.-Canadian Border to study the use of border restrictions to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated variants. We began this effort six months after the border restrictions had been introduced on a temporary basis. The need for a task force became clear as we saw these restrictions renewed every 30 days since, with no plan from either Washington or Ottawa on the conditions that might permit a return to normal border operations, or perhaps a “new normal.”

On Friday, October 29, 2021, the Task Force will release its report, which considers the effects of the border restrictions and its recommendations to current and future policymakers on how to learn from the border restriction experiment begun in March 2020 and – despite recent changes – still ongoing.

The virtual launch event will be live-streamed from this webpage.