Canadian government downplayed mask donations from South Korea out of embarrassment

Last year, the South Korean government donated one million masks to veterans of the Korean War around the world "as an expression of deep gratitude for their collective service and sacrifice." 35,000 of those donated masks went to Canadians.

"As our two nations did seventy years ago in the war, Korea and Canada shall overcome the Covid-19 crisis together standing side by side," said South Korean Ambassador to Canada Maeng-ho Shin.

Canadian officials were worried that such donations would highlight the mask shortage that Canada was facing at the time. They asked Korean diplomats to avoid garnering publicity around the donation.

"Appreciate if we can avoid referring to the quality or grade of masks to the extent possible, but given that it's a donation I suppose we can't redirect them to where they are sorely needed (hospitals)," wrote a senior policy advisor to the Minister of Health. "We will try to avoid this spinning into a story about how some vets in some long term care homes will get N95s while doctors in hospitals are limited to one per day."

As a result, no media was invited to the announcement of the donations.

Department of Veterans Affairs communications director John Embury wrote that the government "will pull the plug on issuing a news release. We have asked them to delay releasing their news release until after the Prime Minister’s news conference, but no guarantee on that."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's director of communications agreed with the assessment. "I worry about the optics around the Government of Canada facilitating the distribution of N95s in settings where they are not recommended for use when doctors are pulling all the stops to stretch the existing supply they have," she wrote.

It is not the only donation of personal protective equipment the Canadian government downplayed. Home Depot and Suncor Energy donated 30,000 and 50,000 masks respectively, which the Canadian government quietly accepted.