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WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● A13 N EW S I CA NA DA SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 2025 HALIFAX — The federal Fisheries Department is shed- ding new light on its relationship with OceanGate, the American company behind the deepsea Titan submersible that imploded south of Newfoundland in 2023, killing all five people aboard. The department confirmed Thursday that in the summer of 2021, a staff member boarded a vessel “associated with OceanGate” to participate as an observer during a mission off Newfoundland. “The purpose was to learn more about OceanGate,” the department said in an email sent to The Canadian Press. “Upon conclusion of the mission, it was determined that (OceanGate’s) priorities did not align with the depart- ment’s scientific objectives, and a further relationship was not pursued.” No other details were provided about the trip. When asked if any federal employees raised safety con- cerns about OceanGate, a department spokesman said safety for submersibles does not fall within the depart- ment’s mandate. “The department was not involved in risk assessment or operational oversight of any subsequent missions,” the spokesman said in an email. Earlier this week, the U.S. Coast Guard released a report that concluded the tragedy on June 18, 2023, could have been prevented had OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush heeded safety warnings and calls for independent inspections and certification of the submersible. Rush was among those killed when Titan split apart as it descended near the Titanic, about four kilometres below the surface of the North Atlantic. Safety procedures at OceanGate, a private company based in Washington state, were “critically flawed” and there were “glaring disparities” between safety protocols and actual practices, the coast guard’s report said. The 300-page report also revealed that in May 2021, Canada’s Fisheries Department had written a “letter of support” to Rush, saying the department wanted to col- laborate with his company to assess its submersibles for scientific research. Only portions of the letter were included in the coast guard report. The Fisheries Department sent a copy of the letter to The Canadian Press on Wednesday, along with a statement that suggested its initial discussions with OceanGate were routine. “Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) routinely express- es interest in scientific collaboration with a wide variety of potential partners,” a spokesman said Wednesday in an email. “In early 2021, DFO had a series of exploratory discus- sions with OceanGate. The (May 2021) letter was sent to summarize the discussions that took place and the poten- tial for the department to work with the company, begin- ning in 2021, to determine the applicability of its marine research systems.” The letter, dated May 19, 2021, makes it clear that de- partment officials were keen to work with Rush and his team. “DFO Maritimes Region is pleased with the discussions with OceanGate, the offer to participate in 2021, and the unique opportunity being offered to Canadian scientists and conservation efforts.” The letter also mentions possible funding from Ottawa. The department spokesman also confirmed in the Wed- nesday email there were discussions about having a staff member board the submersible on an expedition to the Ti- tanic, almost 700 kilometres south of Newfoundland. But he said that never happened. The department did not explain why the relationship with OceanGate was eventually terminated or mention its collaboration on another vessel until pressed for details the next day. Besides DFO’s letter of support in 2021, the U.S. Coast Guard’s investigation found no evidence of any actual col- laboration or funding. The submersible’s implosion also killed French explor- er Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British adventurer Hamish Har- ding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood. In June, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said the independent agency had completed its investigation re- port, which at the time was being reviewed. — The Canadian Press RFK Jr.’s war on mRNA vaccines breeds distrust: experts T ORONTO — Canadian doctors and scientists say U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s defunding of mRNA vaccine research and develop- ment projects will have negative health effects in Canada and around the world. “Canadians do need to understand that this and a lot of the changes that Kennedy is making to vaccination policy in particular are definitely go- ing to affect Canadians,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Univer- sity of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and In- fectious Disease Organization. Unlike other vaccines, mRNA vac- cines can be made very quickly. They can also be easily modified to fight new viruses and adapt to changing strains — something that we saw as new vari- ants emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rasmussen said. That ability is critical as the world prepares for H5N1 bird flu as a pos- sible next pandemic, she said, but the removal of the enormous funding power of the U.S. puts global mRNA vaccine development at risk. “We will be delayed trying to make any vaccine should another virus emerge, including H5N1, which is one of my biggest concerns right now.” On Aug. 5, Kennedy announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was halting funding for 22 mRNA vaccine projects worth nearly US$500 million. It was his latest move in a series of events that demonstrate the longtime anti-vaccine advocate’s “hostility” toward mRNA vaccines as he falsely claims that they aren’t safe and are ineffective, Rasmussen said. In May, Kennedy cancelled fund- ing for Moderna’s development of an mRNA pandemic influenza vaccine. A spokesperson for Moderna Canada said in an email Thursday that the company is “continuing to explore alternatives for advancing our H5N1 program, con- sistent with our global commitment to pandemic preparedness.” Canada Research Chair in Viral Pan- demics Matthew Miller says the U.S. is one of the largest funders of medical research in the world and defunding mRNA vaccine research will likely stall development and threaten Canada’s ac- cess to vital vaccine technology. “We have an incredible amount of real-world safety data as it pertains to mRNA vaccines. The notion that this is not an extremely safe technology, given the billions of doses of these vac- cines that have been administered in the context of COVID-19, is disjointed from reality,” said Miller, who is direc- tor of the Michael G. DeGroote Insti- tute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University in Hamilton. Miller said the spread of disinforma- tion about mRNA vaccines by the U.S. secretary of health and human servi- ces can cause “significant damage” on both sides of the border. “The public expects government to be trustworthy, and to have their best interests in mind. Therefore, policies that appear to legitimize misinforma- tion can create significant confusion and foster additional distrust amongst the public,” he said. Calgary pediatric infectious diseases specialist Dr. Cora Constantinescu, who works with vaccine-hesitant patients and families, said Kennedy’s actions give “more fodder to the anti-vaccine activ- ism movement.” She emphasized mRNA technology is not only being used in infectious disease vaccines, but has also shown a great deal of promise in cancer treatment. Kennedy’s disinformation can also taint people’s views of non-mRNA vac- cines — something that’s especially dangerous right now when both Can- ada and the U.S. are seeing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles, she said. In the news release announcing Ken- nedy’s defunding of mRNA research projects, he claimed to support “safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them.” But Canadian experts say that’s not true, given the proven effectiveness of mRNA vaccines in preventing severe ill- ness and death from COVID-19, as well as false claims he has made in the past about routine childhood vaccinations. They say his rejection of mRNA vac- cines is just one step in a campaign to move away from vaccination overall. “I think all this is a pretty orches- trated anti-vaccine movement agenda,” Constantinescu said. Rasmussen said the defunding of mRNA vaccines is part of a “multi- pronged attack on vaccines in general,” noting Kennedy’s firing of all the pre- vious members of the Advisory Com- mittee on Immunization Practices — which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — in June and replacing them with several members who have a history of anti-vaccine ad- vocacy. – The Canadian Press MICHAEL MACDONALD Titan disaster: federal Fisheries Department was part of previous OceanGate mission NICOLE IRELAND ;