Page - 141 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

CHAPTER B-1 Ensuring Executive and Legislative Accountability in a Pandemic* Vanessa MacDonnell** Abstract Holding the executive and the legislature to account is a perennial challenge in an emergency. Even by emergency standards, however, COVID-19 has presented serious accountability challenges. The cur- rent situation raises questions about how we ensure that the executive and Parliament are held accountable in a public health crisis like the one COVID-19 has precipitated. I explore some of these questions in this chapter. In doing so, I attempt a fair assessment of the challenges the executive and Parliament face in such a crisis, and suggest ways that nodes of accountability might be found both within and outside the political branches when they are not operating as usual. * I am grateful to Amelia Calbry-Muzyka for her excellent research assistance, to Mel Cappe, Paul Daly, Jennifer A. Quaid, Stephen Bindman, and Charlie Feldman for their helpful comments, and to the peer reviewers for their sugges- tions for improvement. The facts in this chapter are current to May 23, 2020. ** Associate Professor, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and Co-Director, uOttawa Public Law Centre.