Canada is thousands of kilometres away from the latest war in the Middle East, but significant public health impacts can be felt here at home, from rising fuel costs and worsening food insecurity to new pressures on health‑care access and growing anxiety in our communities. Preparedness at home for global instability can no longer be an afterthought.
The joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran in late February, and Tehran’s subsequent regional retaliation, has created one of the most significant energy disruptions since the 1970s. In Canada and across the world, gas prices have surged, with analysts warning of further volatility.
These increases hit hardest for low‑income households, single parents, rural and remote communities and people living with chronic diseases. Higher fuel costs translate into higher grocery bills, worsening food insecurity and deepening poverty stress. Fertilizer shortages from petrochemical disruptions will push food inflation even higher. This is unfolding at a time when roughly 25 per cent of people in Canada, about 10 million individuals, including 2.5 million children, already live in food‑insecure households, and more than 2 million Canadians rely on food banks each month. A system already under strain must now prepare for more severe impacts.
Rising fuel costs also limit access to health care for people who must travel long distances, particularly in rural and remote areas. In the longer term, sustained inflation can make it even harder for vulnerable patients to receive timely care.
The mental‑health toll is equally urgent. Children exposed to explosions experience post‑traumatic stress and depression at rates documented in past Middle East conflicts, often 30 to 50 per cent. Adults turn to substance abuse or develop chronic anxiety. But the suffering is not confined to those under fire.
Thousands of Iranian families in Canada are living in “suspended mourning,” watching events in fear unfold in real time, unsure whether loved ones have survived as they wait for news. Their grief cannot progress because the loss is ongoing and ambiguous. At the same time, Jewish communities fear an increase in hostility toward them. Just as we saw after the launch of war in Ukraine, there are complex grief and mental health challenges arriving in our clinics today, lengthening our waitlists. We must scale mental health and trauma‑informed care now.
When bombs fall on hospitals, pharmaceutical and public health infrastructures, health systems fracture and disease surveillance collapses. Longstanding sanctions and conflict have crippled Iran’s health infrastructure, raising the risk of outbreaks of infectious diseases. The Ukraine war taught us that conflict can accelerate the spread of multidrug‑resistant TB and disrupt HIV treatment, challenges that later appeared in Canada. If fighting continues or spreads to Lebanon, Syria or Iraq, Canada must be ready for increased arrivals needing mental‑health support and continuity‑of‑care management.
Environmental risks are mounting as well. Bombs ignite oil facilities, industrial sites and buildings, releasing toxins that cause cancers and other diseases and endangering the planet’s health. And there is the unthinkable but real nuclear risk; not mushroom clouds but strikes near sensitive facilities that could leak radiation across borders.
Canada’s health is inseparable from global stability. We should strengthen support for communities most affected by these shocks before they overwhelm our systems. That means investing in food security, enhancing access to care, implementing trauma‑informed care, implementing school‑based mental‑health programs and adopting care models proven effective in the Syria and Ukraine crises. Diaspora communities need this support immediately.
If there is a lesson in this crisis, it is that resilient food systems and social protections are not abstract policy goals; they are shields against the next shock. When the Middle East burns, Canadians feel the heat in our gas tanks, grocery bills, clinic waitlists and therapy rooms. Global crises may not stay global; they can become local. Canada must prepare for consequences to protect Canadians at home.
