"I don't know the impression everyone else had regarding this COVID trial, but were we still waiting on ethics approval from the Canadian govt?"

Maybe we needed this Ethics Approval from the Health Research Ethics Board (HREB) – Biomedical Panel at the University of Alberta to move us to the front of the Q as it truly would be unethical to keep a candidate with such strong science & potentially life saving ability stuck low in que somewhere?

"This approval allows for recruitment in the trial to commence."

IMO this is great news!