The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on people worldwide. The death tolls, the economic disruptions, the impact on our children’s education, and the extended periods of social and physical distancing have left us feeling demoralized, exhausted, angry, and burned out.

Breaking Canadians brings together health care experts, community advocates, and average citizens from across Canada to offer a unique analysis of the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The book explores the fragmentation of Canada’s health care system, the growth of social inequalities, and the impact of colonialism, racism, ableism, and ageism on the well-being of people in this country. It sheds light on the people our health care system undervalues and overlooks, including nurses, social workers, and essential caregivers.

An important collection of stories, insights, cautionary tales, and calls for action, Breaking Canadians is also a harbinger of what is to come if we do not learn, change our trajectory, and fix what is broken.

Nili Kaplan-Myrth is a lecturer in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa. She is a family physician, anthropologist, Fulbright and Commonwealth scholar, and mother of three who has spent her life advocating for equitable access to health care, Indigenous self-determination in health, disability rights, 2SLGBTQ health, and mental health care. She is the author of Much Madness, Divinest Sense: Women’s Stories of Mental Health and Health Care, Women Who Care: Women’s Stories of Health Care and Caring, and Hard Yakka: Transforming Indigenous Health Policy and Politics, as well as numerous academic articles and newspaper articles.

Dr. Brian Goldman is the bestselling author of The Power of Kindness: Why Empathy Is Essential in Everyday Life, host of CBC’s White Coat, Black Art, and a veteran emergency room physician.

Sue Robins is a health care activist, speaker, and author of Ducks in a Row: Health Care Reimagined