CANADA NEWSROLL

October 2020  This is a newsroll page on A Socialist In Canada, commencing September 2017. It consists of headlines with weblinks to published news articles and political analysis. Occasional commentary by the website publisher, Roger Annis, appears in square brackets [ ] . For preceding  months, go to ‘News pages archives’ on the home page of A Socialist In Canada and use the drop-down menu. To find past stories on this and other news pages on this website, use the ‘find’ (word search) function on your web browser. Headlines in red denote items published on the main news page of A Socialist In Canada.

Covid-19 cases in Canada. Students at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto maintain a website project reporting on Covid-19 cases in Canada, here. As of October 22, 2020, there have been 208,833 Covid-19 cases in Canada, including 2,698 new cases reported on that date, and 9,874 deaths. The seven-day, rolling average of daily new cases in the four largest provinces are (with population in brackets): Quebec 1,042 (8.5 million), Ontario 750 (14.6 million), Alberta 315 (4.4 million), BC 166 (5.1 million).

Canada news headlines on A Socialist In Canada, September 2020 

Assembly of First Nations wants head of RCMP to resign after she defended her officers standing by during race riot against Mi’kmaq fishers in Nova Scotia, CBC News, Oct 23, 2020  [Brenda Lucki already caused an uproar in June of this year following the police killing of George Floyd in the U.S. and the killings of several Indigenous people by police in Canada. She denied that the RCMP was plagued by systemic racism. Even Prime Minister Trudeau disassociated himself from her comments. Under pressure, and to save her job, she backed away from the claim several days later.] .
Previously reported:
*  Head of RCMP voices lame excuses for her failure to protect Mi’maq fishers from racist attacks. Report by CBC News, Oct 21, 2020  [The times are such in Canada that even Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller can’t avoid stating the obvious–the country’s national police force declined to protect the Mi’kmaq people in Nova Scotia as they have come under violent attack by racist commercial lobster fishers. The RCMP’s failure in southwest Nova Scotia in mid-October occured as the federal government’s Department of Fisheries was seizing the lobster traps of Mi’kmaq fishers in northern Nova Scotia deemed to be ‘illegal’ by virtue of having no ‘official’ license to fish, See news report immediately below. In other words, the federal government is playing its typical role as hypocrite–voicing ‘concern’ over First Nations rights when the going gets hot, but otherwise perpetutating the systemic racism that is a hallmark of Canada’s economic elites and governing institutions past and present.]  read also: RCMP Commissioner defends officers’ response to violence against Mi’kmaq fishery, Globe and Mail, Oct 21, 2020
*  Dep’t of Fisheries and Oceans officers in Cape Breton are seizing lobster traps from First Nation fishery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Toronto Star, Oct 20, 2020  [Ottawa is playing both sides of the efforts to block Mi’kmaq Indigenous communities from applying the Supreme Court of Canada decison 20 years ago (!) affirming their right to earn a livelihood from fishing. On the one side, federal government ministers and Prime Minister Trudeau himself are decrying the racist violence against Mi’kmaq fishers by commercial lobster fishers in southwest Nova Scotia. But on Cape Breton Island in the north of the province, Dep’t of Fisheries and Oceans officers are seizing lobster traps belonging to the local Mi’kmaq fishers, saying their locally-managed fishery is ‘illegal’. The DFO is acting in violation of a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that specifically affirmed the right of the Mi’kmaq to earn a livelihood from fishing. The DFO did too little to implement that ruling. See extensive analysis of this history further below.]

Commission investigating Covid-19 in Ontario long-term care homes releases interim recommendations, CTV News, Oct 23, 2020  The independent commission investigating Covid-19 in Ontario’s long-term care system is calling for immediate changes, including increased staffing, improved infection prevention and control measures and stronger relationships between homes and hospitals. The commission says it “felt compelled” to submit interim recommendations to the Ford government in light of the rising COVID-19 case numbers at long-term care homes. Currently, 77 nursing homes have declared an outbreak, with a total of 1,913 resident deaths reported…
Related:
*  Ontario government’s proposed Bill 218 shields the owners of elderly care homes from Covid negligence lawsuits, Sudbury.com, Oct 22, 2020  …The new law would require those harmed as a result of exposure to a Covid-19 infection to prove gross negligence rather than the current standard which is ordinary negligence. This is a significant difference, says the Ontario Health Coaltion…
*  Ontario gov’t vowed to ‘protect’ the families of elderly Covid-19 victimes… now it is making it almost impossible to sue long-term-care homes. Column by Bruce Arthur, Toronto Star, Oct 22, 2020  …The Act also retroactively wipes out existing COVID long-term-care lawsuits and creates something close to an unclimbable mountain: a high and uncertain standard of negligence, and proof that an action was done with something more than malfeasance…
*  Law to shield businesses that spread COVID-19 could benefit insurers, Global News, Oct 22, 2020

Liquefied natural gas in British Columbia is a ‘losing bet’, report finds, but that’s not stopping the fossil fuel death cult running the federal and provincial governments from gambling on it with heavy subsidies. Report by Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee, Oct 22, 2020  A respected U.S. energy group has criticized a rosy Conference Board of Canada report championing more liquefied natural gas development in British Columbia as being “a lobbying effort for government subsidies, support and flexibility”. The scathing critique by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis characterized the Conference Board report as “misleading,” short on facts and unrealistic…
Related:
*  The Site C hydro-electric dam in British Columbia is shaping up as the province’s own ‘Muskrat Falls’ debacle, column in Globe and Mail, Oct 20, 2020 (subsciber only)  In the past decade, Canada’s provincially owned hydroelectric utilities have sold gullible politicians on more than $50-billion in unnecessary dam and transmission projects. From the Muskrat Falls project in Newfoundland and Labrador to the Keeyask dam in Manitoba and the Romaine River development in Quebec, the Canadian landscape is now blighted by big hydro projects that would never have seen the light of day had they been subject to independent and transparent analysis… The incumbent New Democratic Party government and its Liberal Party predecessor in BC have both avoided talking about the ‘Site C’ hydro-electric dam under construction during the provincial election to take place on October 24. That’s not surprising–both parties are complicit in pushing ahead with a development that experts warned was far too risky. The dam’s cost estimate has ballooned from an original $3 billion to more than $13 billion, and counting…
*  A word to progressives in British Columbia: Don’t fall for NDP fearmongering, The Tyee, Oct 22, 2020
*  Green Party of BC leader Sonia Furstenau wants party to focus on ‘addressing the growing inequality’, in Globe and Mail, Oct 22, 2020  read the article here in pdf format: Sonia Furstenau

Delays in COVID-19 testing results putting long-term care homes at greater risk, The Globe and Mail, Oct 20, 2020  Multiple health regions across Canada are missing target turnaround times for COVID-19 test results, hampering efforts to keep the spread of the virus under control. While experts say the goal should be to complete COVID-19 tests within 24 hours, some of the worst hot spots are taking three days or more…
Related:
*  Do we really have a handle on COVID-19 spread in Ontario? Testing problems are leading many to question if anyone actually knows what’s happening, investigative report in Toronto Star, Oct 20, 2020  Ontario’s labs reported on October 20 they had tested at less than half their full capacity to process patient samples — a shortfall that has experts questioning whether the province is still able to accurately measure the virus’s spread.
*  Testing delays  in Canada worsen, hurting efforts to control COVID-19 spread, The Globe and Mail, Oct 15, 2020

Lobster fishery at a crossroads: A three part series published in the Halifax Examiner, by Joan Baxter and Linda Pannozzo
Part one: It’s been 20 years since the Marshall decision, so why is there still no moderate livelihood fishery?, Oct 5, 2020
Part two: Tensions over a moderate livelihood fishery are hiding a much bigger threat to the inshore, Oct 7, 2020
Part three: What are the prospects for the Atlantic lobster fishery?, Oct 10, 2020

Inside the decades-long battle by First Nations in eastern Canada for the right to fish for lobster, BBC News, Oct 17, 2020
Related:
*  How the ‘Clearwater Lobster’ corporate megafisher, headed by Nova Scotia’s richest billionaire, has set the stage for violent conflict over First Nations fishing rights, by Robin Tress, Council of Canadians, Oct 17, 2020
*  First Nations say salmon allocation decision in British Columbia shows systemic racism at federal Dep’t of Fisheries and Oceans, Canadian Press, Aug 17, 2020
*  ‘Unprecedented’ coalition demands end to B.C. salmon farms, Abbotsford News, Sep 22, 2020

Related recent news of the ongoing conflict over First Nations rights to fish for lobster in Nova Scotia:
*  Wave of violent attacks by mobs of commercial lobster fishers and supporters against Aboriginal (Mi’kmaw) fishers in southwest Nova Scotia as federal police stand by and watch, CBC News, Oct 14, 2020
*  Fire destroys lobster pound in southwest Nova Scotia being used by Mi’kmaw fishermen, CBC News, Oct 17, 2020  [The lobster storing facility is owned by someone described as a friend and ally by the Sipeknek’katik (Mi’kmaw) community. The building was the same lobster pound where two employees were attacked by a mob on October 13 looking to destroy the lobster catch of First Nation fishers.].
*  President of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union local 9 resigns, saying reconciliation between lobster fishers and First Nations fishers has proven difficult, federal gov’t inaction is to blame, Toronto Star, Oct 16, 2020
*  Statement by the Council of Canadians in support of Mi’kmaq assertion of the right to fish for a moderate livelihood, Sep 23, 2020
*  Mi’kmaq tackle decades-old standstill on fishing rights in launching historic, self-regulated lobster fishery, CBC News, Sept 19, 2020
*  Aboriginal fishing rights in Canada: The Supreme Court of Canada decision of 1999 concerning Donald Marshall Jr., The Canadian Encyclopedia, April 11, 2020

In the midst of a killer pandemic, with a warmaking psychotic in charge in the U.S. capital, what better time for Ottawa and its corporate media legions to press participation in the U.S.-led new cold war against China and Russia?

News reports:
*  Chinese envoy to Canada warns Ottawa against granting asylum to Hong Kong protesters, rejects Trudeau’s outburst accusing China of engaging in ‘coercive diplomacy’. Report by CBC News, Oct 15, 2020
*  In regime-change drive against Belarus, Canadian foreign minister visits Belarus opposition leader living in NATO-frontline country of Lithuania. Report by CBC News, Oct 16, 2020
Meanwhile, here is a slice of the real news as concerns China (as reported on the ‘World news’ page of A Socialist In Canada website): 
*  Danger in the South China Sea, by Ann Wright, Consortium News, Oct 16, 2020  Over the past two years, the United States has dramatically increased the number of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and destroyers sent into the South China Sea as freedom-of-navigation show-of- force missions to remind the Chinese government that the U.S. considers the Western Pacific and the South China Sea as a part of the oceans of America and its allies…  In August 2020, the United States held its Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval war practice, traditionally the world’s largest maritime war maneuver with 25,000 personnel, 200 ships from 25 countries. This year, Covid-19 concerns reduced RIMPAC to 20 ships and naval forces from 10 countries: South Korea, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, New Zealand, Brunei, France and the United States…
*  U.S. advances three arms sales packages to Taiwan, Defense News, Oct 12, 2020
*  White House advances drone and missile sales to Taiwan, Reuters, Oct 13, 2020
*  U.S. pushing arms sales surge to Taiwan, provoking China, Reuters, Sept 16, 2020  The United States plans to sell as many as seven major weapons systems, including mines, cruise missiles and drones to Taiwan, four people familiar with the discussions said, as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on China. Pursuing seven sales at once is a rare departure from years of precedent in which U.S. military sales to the island were spaced out and carefully calibrated to minimize tensions with Beijing. But the Trump administration has become more aggressive with China in 2020 and the sales would land as relations between Beijing and Washington are at their lowest point in decades…

‘It’s April all over again’. Ontario could be on the brink of another catastrophe in seniors and long-term care homes, Toronto Star, Oct 16, 2020  …As of October 15, there were 159 residents and 199 staff members of long-term-care homes with active cases of COVID-19. Compare that to 176 long-term-care residents and 141 staff members with COVID-19 as of April 7, according to data collected by the Ontario Health Coalition, a non-profit, non-partisan network of public health care advocates… Current provincial data is stark: active cases in long-term-care homes have more than quadrupled since Sept. 1, while the number of homes with outbreaks since then has risen from 13 to 71…
Related:
*  Concerns voiced over Ontario’s contracting of Covid-19 testing to pharmacies, including that samples are shipped to the U.S. to be processed.  Report in Toronto Star, Oct 17, 2020
*  69 people infected so far from Covid-19 outbreak at fitness gym in Hamilton, Canada’s worst such outbreak to date, Toronto Star, Oct 15, 2020
*  ‘Dangerous, hallucinatory.’ The ‘Barrington Declaration’ out of the U.S. pushing a ‘herd immunity’ approach to Covid-19 is not looking at the science nor looking out for you, by Bruce Arthur, columnist, Toronto Star, Oct 16, 2020  [For more analysis of the bogus ‘herd immunity’ advocacy, go to the ‘World news’ page for October 14 on A Socialist In Canada.]

Testing of sewage for COVID-19 in Ottawa is showing an ‘alarming’ surge in viral transmission in Ottawa, researchers say, Toronto Star, Oct 14, 2020  The novel detection process belies flattening case counts registered by Ontario’s strained if not broken testing system  …Epidemiologists have warned that upheaval in the Ontario’s testing system — difficulty accessing assessment centres, backlogs of swabs, and changes to testing criteria — mean that any apparent flattening in Ontario’s case curve should be considered suspect…

COVID-19 outbreaks are hitting nursing homes in Canada, again, Postmedia, Oct 13, 2020  [The criminal negligence of political and public health leaders in Canada in response to the coronavirus pandemic is in stark evidence once again. Care homes for the elderly have not been made safe, they are once again becoming killing grounds for the virus. But the reality of the continued negligence by officials is being obscured by the widespread use of the term ‘second wave’ to explain what is going on. In Canada’s largest province of Ontario, testing and contact tracing for the coronavirus has all but collapsed, largely due to the negligence and incompetence of the provincial government and leading public health officials.] Related:  Seven days of inaction: Why did Ontario dawdle on the Oct 2 request by Toronto Public Health to close bars and restaurants?, by Matt Elliot, contributing columnist, Toronto Star, Oct 12, 2020

Consortium News sues Global television network in Canada for defamation over its report that Consortium was part of attack against Canadian politician ‘directed by Russia’, by Joe Lauria, editor, Consortium News, Oct 13, 2020  …The lawsuit accuses the Corus Entertainment-owned network of entering into a business conspiracy with the Canadian Communications Security Establishment (CSE)–Canada’s NSA—to link critics of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to Russia “as a way of discrediting those critics and protecting themselves”…

Alberta’s fossil fuel death cult government to lay off up to 11,000 staff, mostly through outsourcing. News report by CBC News, Oct 13, 2020  Between 9,700 and 11,000 employees to be laid off in laboratory, linen, cleaning and in-patient food services
Related:
*  The United Conservative Party government’s war on public health in Alberta, by Taylor Lambert, published in The Sprawl (Calgary), Oct 1, 2020
*  Health care expenditure in Canada, 1975-2019, Canadian Institute for Health Information

Only when the NDP is safely re-elected to office will the public in British Columbia get the straight goods about the Site C dam, by Vaughn Palmer, columnist, Vancouver Sun, Oct 13, 2020  One of the experts who Premier John Horgan and the New Democrats consulted on the fate of the Site C dam three years ago has come back to argue it would still be cost-effective to cancel the project, now costed at $13.7 billion…
Previously reported:
*  British Columbia premier dives for cover on Site C dam woes, by Vaughn Palmer, columnist, Vancouver Sun, Sep 29, 2020  The crisis over the geostability and massive cost overruns of the Site C hydroelectric project in northeast BC are getting worse. Don’t expect the NDP or Liberals to talk about it during the current election
[Following the 2017 election in British Columbia, the BC Green Party entered into a governing agreement with the New Democratic Party. Its three elected members joined with the NDP’s 41 members for a slim majority in the BC legislature. As part of that agreement, the party’s caucus in the legislature agreed to set aside opposition to the NDP’s determination to continue with the Site C dam boondoggle, a project begun by the preceding Liberal Party government. A similar stance was taken with respect to the NDP’s natural gas fracking and liquefaction commitments to the death-cult fossil fuel industry. The Green Party leader of the time, Andrew Weaver, defected from the party in 2019 and is not running for re-election. He is supporting the NDP in the current election to take place on October 24.].
*  The Site C hydro-electric dam boondoggle, by Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee, Sep 22, 2020  …A political culture of delusion, deception and lack of transparency has dominated the largest infrastructure project in the province’s history. The results are ominous: an out-of-control budget for a project with clear, substantial and probably unfixable geotechnical issues that were well documented but ignored due to political bias… Oxford scholar Bent Flyvbjerg explained in a 2014 research paper that megaprojects promise jobs and prosperity but mostly deliver complexity and fragility. Nine out of 10 megaprojects (high-tech infrastructure) will never deliver a return on their initial investment…

Canada’s national library and archives website continues to peddle racist history, despite promises made years ago to ‘reconcile’ and clean up its act. Report in Toronto Star, Oct 12, 2020

Toronto Public Health won’t say which employers have COVID-19 outbreaks. We obtained workers compensation data to help paint a picture, by Sara Mojtehedzadeh, work and wealth reporter, Toronto Star, Oct 9, 2020 (with chart showing which industries have Covid-19 outbreaks)

Forget the non-sense language of Covid ‘second wave’: Here is the face of Canada’s Covid negligence:

  • Trudeau says ‘second wave’ of Covid-19 taking place as Canada is projected to see thousands of new, daily COVID-19 cases, CTV News, Oct 9, 2020

Chart by CBC News, Oct 9, 2020

  • Ontario bans indoor dining, closes gyms and lowers gathering limits in COVID-19 hot spots as new cases hit a record 939, Toronto Star, Oct 9, 2020  and read: report by CBC News, Oct 9, 2020  In an abrupt reversal, Premier Doug Ford is slapping new restrictions on bars, restaurants, gyms, theatres, weddings and more in the COVID-19 hot spots of Toronto, Peel and Ottawa after the province set a daily record with 939 new cases. Schools and daycares will remain open but new measures include a ban of at least 28 days on indoor dining and drinking at restaurants, bars and food courts, while gyms, fitness centres, theatres, bingos and casinos must close effective October 10… Critics questioned what took Ford’s government so long to act given weeks of warnings from the Ontario Hospital Association, Toronto medical officer Dr. Eileen de Villa, and doctors and epidemiologists who called for tougher public health measures to reduce the spread and save lives. “They’re two weeks behind the 8-ball and we’re not going to see the effects until the end of the month,” Dr. Gerald Evans, chair of infectious diseases at Queen’s University and director of infection prevention and control at Kingston Health Sciences Centre, told the Star…  Update: Ontario is reporting 809 new Covid-19 cases on the morning of October 10 (for October 9) Canadian Press 
    Related:
    *  Ontario gov’t is giving up on contact tracing, though medical experts say it is key to battling the coronavirus, Toronto Star, Oct 9, 2020
    *  Ontario’s COVID-19 testing system in upheaval as volumes drop at some sites, positivity rates rise and samples get shipped out of province, Toronto Star, Oct 8, 2020
    *  Coronavirus cases on the rise again in Ontario nursing homes, Globe and Mail, Oct 8, 2020  A surge of COVID-19 infections in Canada’s most populous province is spreading to elderly residents of nursing homes, with the number of facilities declaring an outbreak tripling over the past month… The vast [sic] majority of Ontario’s 630 long-term care homes remain free of the virus, but the number of homes with outbreaks has risen to 57 from just 19 in early September…
    *  Premier Doug Ford and his medical officer of health were shocked by rising COVID numbers. Let that sink in, by Bruce Arthur, columnist, Toronto Star, Oct 9, 2020
    *  Covid-19 cases are rising, testing and contact tracing are in shambles and hospitals are warning of overload, but Ontario premier boasts ‘we’re flattening the curve’. By Bruce Arthur, columnist, Toronto Star, Oct 6, 2020

Chart by CTV News, Oct 9, 2020

  • Quebec reports 1,102 new COVID-19 cases, 21 deaths, CTV News, Oct 9, 2020  Update: Quebec is reporting 1097 new Covid-19 cases on the morning of October 10 (for October 9) Canadian Press 

 

 

Chart in Globe and Mail, Oct 7, 2020

  • Covid-19 cases rising sharply in First Nations communities in Canada. Report in Globe and Mail, Oct 7, 2020  [This news article uses the non-scientific term ‘second wave’ to describe the rise in Covid-19 cases in Canada’s approximately 630 First Nations communities. The term is becoming ubiquitous in corporate media. The rise of Covid-19 cases across Canada is not a ‘second wave’, it is the numerical measure of the ongoing neglect and criminal negligence by political and public health authorities in Ottawa and most provinces.].
  • Chief medical officer of British Columbia Bonnie Henry opposes mandatory use of masks in indoor settings, Vancouver Sun, Oct 9, 2020

New Green Party of Canada leader Annamie Paul: A voice for imperialism, by Aidan Jonah, The Canada Files, Oct 10, 2020  … Annamie Paul became the Green Party’s International Affairs Critic in August 2019. In November 2019, the cowardly Green Party response to the violent coup against Bolivian socialist leader Evo Morales was led by Paul. The response uncritically parroted a fraudulent OAS Electoral Observer Mission report inferring that Morales’ resignation was a voluntary choice and callingfor “all parties to exercise maximum restraint”. In January 2020, Paul signaled her support for “internationally facilitated negotiations culminating in free and fair elections” for Venezuela. This statement failed to address the US-backed coup attempt in Venezuela, attempted to take a “neutral” position between supporting US puppet Juan Guaido and the democratically elected president Nicholas Maduro, and served to delegitimize the free and fairly held 2018 elections, in which Maduro won a majority and retained the presidency…

Nearly 150 residents died in Ontario’s long-term care homes as the provincial government dawdled over what to do about Covid-19. Report in Toronto Star, Oct 6, 2020  [Warnings about the impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes were relayed to the Ontario government in late January but the government’s ‘action plan’ didn’t come until mid-April, a formal commission investigating the pandemic’s toll has been told. By mid-April, at least 144 residents had already died in 100 outbreaks. The coronavirus has killed more than 1,953 residents and eight staff members in care homes in Ontario. Its deadly spread was enabled by pre-existing cuts to pharmacy services, low wages and poor working conditions causing staff shortages as well as staff working in multiple locations, lack of personal protective equipment, and failure to prepare homes with appropriate safety guidelines.]

How the rich live and die in secrecy in Canada: Supreme Court of Canada urged to keep secret the estate of  pharmaceutical industry oligarchs Barry and Honey Sherman. Report in Toronto Star, Oct 6, 2020.  [The couple was found dead in their home in Toronto on December 15, 2017. A police investigation has gone nowhere and the surviving family has fought tenaciously to block any news of what may have happened. The family successfully sought the demolition of the home, which went ahead in May 2019. Wikipedia.]

Why Canadians should support the cross-Canada petition effort to free Meng Wanzhou, by Ken Stone, The Canada Files, Oct 6, 2020

Trump’s Proud Boys: The Canadian connection, by Scott Taylor, publisher, Esprit de Corps military affairs magazine, Oct 5, 2020

Canada adds 2,206 new coronavirus cases on Oct 5, marking highest daily increase yet , Global News, Oct 5, 2020  [Some 20 new deaths were also recorded. The new cases by province were Quebec 1,191, Ontario 615, Alberta 218, British Columbia 120 and 51 in Manitoba (one third the population of Alberta and one quarter of BC).].
Related:
*  Ontario premier won’t close bars and restaurants in Toronto without ‘more data,’ despite soaring case counts and plea from city’s top doctor, Toronto Star, Oct 5, 2020
*  Hospitals in Toronto region warn of ‘enormous growing risk’ as they urge stronger COVID-19 measures, Toronto Star, Oct 4, 2020  …On October 3, Ontario reported 566 new COVID-19 cases, down from a record 732 on October 2. 169 people with the virus are in hospital. The number of hospitalized cases has almost doubled in the last ten days; there were 88 people with COVID-19 in hospital on Sept. 24…
*  Experts advised the Ontario government for months to boost COVID testing capacity. Sources say they just didn’t want to spend the money, by Bruce Arthur, columnist, Toronto Star, Oct 2, 2020
*  Ontario’s guidance around COVID-19 sowing confusion, distrust, some experts say, CBC News, Oct 2, 2020

Quebec retreats from ‘reopening’ its economy and public insitutions as Covid-19 cases surge, Report by CBC News, Sep 28, 2020  …Schools remain open, but there have been a total of 1,163 cases reported in 489 schools in the province…
Related:
*  Ontario sees single-day record of 700 new COVID-19 cases as calls grow to return to ‘stage two’ restrictions, CBC News, Sep 28, 2020  Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling the province’s record-setting new COVID-19 case count on September 28 “deeply concerning” but has not announced any new public health measures, despite a group of doctors and medical experts calling for a return to Stage 2…
*  Amid surge in COVID-19 transmission, physicians warn Ontario’s testing, tracing plans fall short, CBC News, Sep 29, 2020
*  In Ontario, the alarm bells are blaring over COVID-19. Why isn’t the province listening?, by Bruce Arthur, columnist, Toronto Star, Sep 28, 2020  …”It seems insane to me that the entire health sector is uniformly alarmed,” said one Ontario health executive who requested anonymity, “and yet the government and public health isn’t listening [to health experts’ urgings to return the province to ‘stage 2’ pandemic response]. It’s bizarre.”… Premier Doug Ford keeps pleading with people who aren’t listening to follow confusing and contradictory regulations. His government says gatherings must be limited to 10 indoors and 20 outdoors, but it’s ok to fit 30 in a classroom, 75 in a bar and plenty more in houses of worship and banquet halls and stores. Social circles of 10 were in ashes as soon as people sent their kids back to school in a province unwilling to adequately fund small class sizes…
*  Four dead and 53 infected from Covid-19 at Calgary’s Foothill Medical Centre, the largest hospital in Alberta, CBC News, Sep 28, 2020
[Corporate and state media in Canada are dutifully following the lead of political leaders in declaring a ‘second wave’ of Covid-19 in the country. The fatalistic phrase is entirely unscientific; it is, rather, a convenient phrase to confuse and cover up the fact that Canada is suffering the continuation of a failed and ciminally negligent Covid-19 response that dates all the way back to the onset of the pandemic.]

Vancouver’s housing cracks are showing, by Kerry Gold, real estate reporter, Globe and Mail, Sep 26, 2020  Read the article here in pdf format: Vancouver’s housing cracks  …”This is the ‘triumph of the city’ style thinking meeting the consequences and realities of displacement and inequality,” says Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program. “There is an inhumanity to it because these are market failures. The market is simply not designed to meet the housing needs of those existing low-income residents who live there.”…

Clearcutting and global warming are threatening Douglas fir species in British Columbia interior, CBC News, Sep 18, 2020
Related:
*  Red flags in the forests: Is there still time to save British Columbia’s iconic red cedar tree species? Report in Globe and Mail, Sep 28, 2020
*  It’s decision time for B.C.’s last remaining old-growth forests. Will the government step up?, commentary by Jens Wieting (Sierra Club BC), published in The Narwhal, Aug 14, 2020  More than 500 soccer fields of massive trees are clearcut in the province every day as we wait for the NDP government’s response to a report on our old-growth crisis  It has been more than three months since the BC government received a report and recommendations from the independent old-growth review panel. We have known for years that BC’s old-growth forests are under threat. In June, an expert report revealed that less than three per cent of the province’s original forest with very big, old trees remains standing. The report also showed that most of the last 415,000 hectares of old-growth forests with big and huge trees are not protected from logging…
*  BC government ‘consultations’ of old growth forest cutting practices won’t slow the practice, critics charge, by Sarah Cox, The Narwhal, Sep 16, 2020  The BC government’s ministry of forests has announced the “protection” of nine areas in B.C., totalling almost 353,000 hectares, to kickstart the NDP government’s “new approach to old forests”. But as the adage goes, the devil is in the details. “If you look at the facts,”says Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, the announcement “essentially preserves the core of the old-growth logging industry. Left as it is, it will liquidate most of the remaining endangered old-growth.”…
*  Unchecked global warming means big trouble for forests, by Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News, Apr 25, 2020

Interactive map by CBC News

Three weeks after Alberta gov’t ended funding for the province’s largest safe injection site, in Lethbridge, unsanctioned site opens in a city park, CBC News, Sep 26, 2020  The ‘Arches’ safe drug injection site had 500 visits per day before its funding was cut. In 2020, Lethbridge, population 100,000, is suffering the largest number of deaths from durg poisonings (‘overdoses’).  …The government’s numbers also show that Lethbridge led the province on a per-capita basis in responses by emergency medical services to opioid-related events at 333 per 100,000 people, more than double the provincial rate…
Related:
*  Alberta records highest number of opioid overdose deaths in April -June 2020 since reporting began, Edmonton Journal, Sep 23, 2020  Opioid overdoses killed 301 people in Alberta between April and June, marking the highest number of deaths since reporting began, the latest government data shows. That compares to 148 deaths between January and March of this year. The figures are contined in the Q2 Opioid Surveillance Report issued by the Alberta government department of health…
*  Alberta gov’t wants police to shut down unauthorized safe consumption site in Lethbridge, Calgary Herald, Sep 27, 2020
*  Eight months into 2020, BC has already surpassed last year’s drug overdose death total, The Tyee, Sep 22, 2020  [August 2020 saw another record toll of deaths by drug poisoning for that month, at 147. That compares to 14 deaths from Covid-19 and 86 drug poisoning deaths in August 2019. Emergency services in British Columbia responded to nearly 7,500 non-fatal overdose calls this past summer (June-August), the highest number of overdose calls in any three-month period.]

Daily Covid-19 cases in Canada (Maclean’s magazine)

COVID-19 in Canada: Here’s how our battle against the second wave is going, by Patricia Treble, Maclean’s Magazine, Sep 24, 2020  The Big Four provinces continue to drive Canada’s disturbing rise in cases, with Quebec acknowledging that the second wave has arrived
[This article in Maclean’s is an important overview of the worsening pandemic situation in Canada, evidence of the continued negligence by leading government and public health officials in Canada. The article uses the the fatalistic and unscientific language of a ‘second wave’ of the SARS-CoV-r coronavirus. ‘Second wave’ is code language for ‘failed, negligent pandemic policy, ongoing’.] Related:
*  Doctors issue open letter urging Ontario government to tighten Covid-19 restrictions again before it’s too late, by Lauren O’Neil, Blog TO, Sep 24, 2020  The window of time to prevent another deadly mass outbreak of COVID-19 in Ontario is closing, according to 38 leading physicians from hospitals across the province. Without swift and serious action, they argue in an open letter issued today, we could soon be looking at another lengthy “widespread closure of non-essential businesses and schools.” Their letter is issued by the Ontario Hospital Association… Ontario is reporting new cases daily that rival the numbers in May when the pandemic was at its height…
*  Ontario Premier Doug Ford does have a COVID-19 second-wave plan, after all. But is he making safety tradeoffs for short-term economic gains?, by Bruce Arthur, columnist, Toronto Star, Sep 24, 2020
*  How Canada has bungled the COVID-19 endgame, by Amir Attaran, Maclean’s Magazine, May 31, 2020  (Amir Attaran is a professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa.)

Overcrowded buses worry commuters in Toronto as COVID-19 cases rise, weather turns colder, CBC News, Sep 19, 2020
Related:  Crowded subway platform shows TTC needs to do more to make transit safe, by Becky Robertson, TO Blog, Sep 10, 2020

The long record of anti-Palestine positions by Stephen Lewis, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, by Yves Engler, published in The Canada Files, Sep 25, 2020  (Stephen Lewis was the leader of the Ontario section of the New Democratic Party from 1970-78 and ambassador of Canada to the United Nations from 1984-88.)
Related:  New survey shows that Canada’s Israel Policy is opposed by majority of Canadians, by Daniel Xie, published in The Canada Files, Sep 25, 2020

A 7,000 word throne speech that didn’t need to exist, by Chris Selley, columnist, National Post, Sep 23, 2020  You don’t need to haul the governor general out of bed to add specifics to pre-existing promises, let alone to simply reiterate them, as this speech does over and over again
Related:
*  Business groups back Throne Speech announcement of extension of emergency wage subsidy program, National Post, Sep 23, 2020
*  Ford Motor Co. and Unifor union reach tentative agreement on new collective agreement, boosted by government subsidies to retool Oakville ON plant to assemble electric vehicles, National Post, Sep 22, 2020  [In Canada’s long-diminished auto assembly industry, which largely manufactures the worst-polluting automobiles, Unifor negotiates for approximately 5,000 workers at Ford, 9,000 at Fiat-Chrysler and 4,100 at General Motors. The Canadian and Ontario governments have agreed to hand over $500 million to Ford to launch electric vehicle production at its assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario.] *  Natural resource industries in Canada shed 43,000 jobs in second quarter of 2020, Financial Post, Sep 22,2020

Election in British Columbia is all about NDP minority gov’t drive to end dependence on Green Party and benefit from pandemic spending. Column by Vaughn Palmer, in Vancouver Sun, Sep 22, 2020  [The New Democratic Party government in BC, elected in 2017, has a global warming/death cult economic agenda founded on gas fracking, forest clearcutting, mining and rampant urban expansion. This is indistinguishable from its Liberal Party predecessor government. The NDP sells its version of Canada’s corporate death cult agenda by being a little less harsh with its spending on social programs.] Related BC news:
*  Eight months into 2020, BC has already surpassed last year’s drug overdose death total, The Tyee, Sep 22, 2020  [August 2020 saw another record toll of deaths by drug poisoning for that month, at 147. That compares to 14 deaths from Covid-19 and 86 drug poisoning deaths in August 2019. Emergency services in the province responded to nearly 7,500 non-fatal overdose calls this past summer (June-August), the highest number of overdose calls in any three-month period.].
*  The Site C hydro-electric dam boondoggle, by Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee, Sep 22, 2020  …A political culture of delusion, deception and lack of transparency has dominated the largest infrastructure project in the province’s history. The results are ominous: an out-of-control budget for a project with clear, substantial and probably unfixable geotechnical issues that were well documented but ignored due to political bias… Oxford scholar Bent Flyvbjerg explained in a 2014 research paper that megaprojects promise jobs and prosperity but mostly deliver complexity and fragility. Nine out of 10 megaprojects (high-tech infrastructure) will never deliver a return on their initial investment…

Canada’s top doctor warns of sharp rise in COVID-19 cases if Canadians don’t follow guidelines, CBC News, Sep 22, 2020  ……Federal health officials presented new modelling today that shows the pandemic is accelerating nationally. They warn that if Canadians don’t step up preventative measures, the virus could spread out of control and trigger a wave of infections bigger than the first one [sic]. Cases could climb to more than 5,000 daily by October, according to the projections…

Ottawa gov’t pledge $1 billion for cities to rapidly buy motels and hotels, build modular housing for low-income housing, by Victoria Gibson, Toronto Star, Sep 21, 2020  (read the article here in pdf format: Ottawa pledges $1 billion for low-income housing)  …Social Development Minister Ahmed Hussen wouldn’t say if the money would become an annual commitment, but it came two days before the Liberals unveil their throne speech that is expected to include new pledges on affordable housing. Earlier in September, Canadian municipalities requested $3.5 billion for emergency housing relief…

Federal court weighing certification of class action lawsuit against RCMP for negligence over missing and murdered women and girls, CBC News, Sep 18, 2020  …In the fall of 2016, a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls commenced. The final report made 231 recommendations in response to what it called a “Canadian genocide” spurred by “state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies”. Lawyer Tony Merchant said his clients feel nothing has been done to address the recommendations. The court documents filed by Merchant say the forensic document review project that came out of the government’s inquiry states there have been an unusually high number of investigative errors, including destruction or loss of evidence, delays in starting investigations and failure to follow up on leads…

President and vice-president of the Public Health Agency of Canada resign amidst rise in Covid-19 cases. Reports by Global News and Globe and Mail, Sep 18, 2020.

[Two of the top officials who have guided Canada’s failed and criminally negligent response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have resigned their posts. Tina Namiesniowski, president of the Public Health Agency of Canada, has resigned saying she lacks the “energy and stamina” for the job. One week earlier, Sally Thornton resigned as vice-president. Both are career government administrators, neither has medical expertise. The resignations come as Covid-19 cases in Canada are reaching daily highs of more than 1000, the highest numbers in four months.

[Nervous, if not panicked, corporate media and government officials are talking more and more of a ‘new wave’ or ‘second wave’ of Covid-19 illnesses. But these are nonsensical terms. They are code language for ‘failed policy’. The terms do have the distinct advantage for government and public health officials of conveying a fatalistic view of the pandemic, as though ‘second waves’ are ordained by a higher being. In reality, the recently rising case numbers in Canada are yet more indicators of a failed and criminally negligent pandemic response that is ongoing and easily traced:

    • In 2018 and early 2019, Canada effectively dismantled its pandemic early warning and surveillance system known as the Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN). This contributed to the lack of supply of personal protective equipment for health care professionals at the outset of the pandemic. Following revelations in the Globe and Mail on July 25 of the dismantling of the agency (reported in the ‘Canada news’ headline page of A Socialist In Canada website at the time), Canada’s auditor-general announced an inquiry into the matter on July 29 and the federal government announced a ‘review’ on September 6.
    • Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Theresa Tam told the health committee of the Parliament of Canada on January 29 that the risk of a pandemic in Canada “remains low”. On January 31, federal health minister Patty Hadju stated that the risk of Covid-19 was “very low”. Tam repeated her words on February 5 and Prime Minister Trudeau said the same on February 9. Soothing messaging dismissing the coronavirus threat continued right into the days prior to the declaration of a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11.
    • On February 26, health minister Hadju concurred with a journalist that Canadians would do well to begin to stockpile food and first aid supplies.
    • In Quebec, extensive travel by residents occured in late February–internationally, to other provinces and within the province. This coincided with the annual ‘spring break’ in schools and universities. The Quebec government told citizens that there was no particular Covid-19 danger in travel.
    • Meanwhile in Ontario, Premier Doug Ford answered a journalist’s question on March 12 about travel coinciding with that province’s annual, one-week ‘March break’ of schools beginning March 16. He encouraged residents of the province to “go away, have a good time, enjoy yourselves“. The same day, provincial officials announced that schools would remain closed for two weeks following the spring break, until April 5 (two weeks is the recognized time lapse for the appearance of coronavirus infection).
    • Canada’s borders remained open for all travelers until one week following WHO’s pandemic declaration. Beginning March 18, the government imposed “restrictions” on international travel into the country. But as news reports frequently detailed for weeks following that, the ‘restrictions’ largely consisted of distributing written notices to arriving travelers advising self-isolation if feeling unwell or falling ill.
    • For months, Theresa Tam dismissed the importance of the use of face masks in limiting the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This was also the case with the chief public health officer of British Columbia, Bonnie Henry. Throughout the pandemic, Henry has downplayed the scientific recommendations for use of masks. ‘Use them if you need to, but not if you don’t need to’, has been her message.
    • Nowhere is the negligence of Canada’s political and public health care officials more evident than in the grim toll of Covid-19 in retirement homes and long-term care homes for the elderly. Eighty per cent of the known, nearly 9,300 Covid-19 deaths in Canada occured in these settings.

[Corporate and state media have largely avoided detailed examinations of the negligent, pandemic response by Canada’s governments and state-run health agencies (the sole exception being the Globe and Mail‘s investigation into GPHIN debacle). This is also the case for alternative media. A detailed timeline of Canada’s early response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (January to end-March) was published in the Edmonton Journal on April 5.]

At this rate, Ontario schools won’t make it to Thanksgiving, by Robyn Urback, columnist, Globe and Mail, Sep 16, 2020  read the column here in pdf format: School opening in Ontario
Related:  New York City school plans shift as physical opening postponed to Sep 21 while most students will start remotely,  Washington Post, Sep 17, 2020

Canada’s corporate and state media censoring the bombshell report of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board issued on September 14. Two days after its issuance, the bombshell report of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board has garnered nary a mention in Canada’s corporate and state media. The 52-page report paints a withering portrait of the response of the world’s wealthy countries to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The report begins: “Never before has the world been so clearly forewarned of the dangers of a devastating pandemic, nor previously had the knowledge, resources and technologies to deal with such a threat. Yet, never before has the world witnessed a pandemic of such widespread and destructive social and economic impact… Financial and political investments in preparedness have been insufficient, and we are all paying the price…” Here is news of the report:
*  ‘A World In Disorder’: Report by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board condemns global failure to heed COVID-19 warnings, Agence France presse, Sep 14, 2020
[A collective failure by leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries to heed warnings and prepare for an infectious disease pandemic has transformed “a world at risk” into a “world in disorder”, according to a new report on international epidemic preparedness. “Financial and political investments in preparedness have been insufficient, and we are all paying the price,” says the 52-page report by The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) issued on September 14.].
Related:
*  Text of ‘A World In Disorder’, the annual report (2020) by The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. Read the 52-page report here, issued on September 14, 2020
*  A world in disorder: Text of remarks by WHO Director-General at the release of the 2020 annual report by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, published on Relief Web, Sep 14, 2020

Canada breaks off talks with China over new trade and investment regime, Reuters, Sep 18, 2020  [The Canadian government has ended talks with its Chinese counterpart for a broad trade and investment regime (so called free trade agreement). The news is reported in subscriber-only content in the anti-China Globe and Mail daily and is based on an interview with Canada’s new foreign minister, François-Philippe Champagne. China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner. Total trade between the two countries topped $100 billion in 2018 and fell just under that mark in 2019. For several years, the Globe and Mail has waged a vigorous campaign to convince the Canadian government to follow in the footsteps of the Trump regime and harden its relations with China. The campaign has the participation of all of Canada’s corporate and state-run media.]

COVID sucks, unless you’re a billionaire. Canada’s richest have raked in $37 billion since March, by Derrick O’Keefe, published in Ricochet, Sep 17, 2020

NDP gov’t in BC is ducking questions on multi-billion dollar cost overruns at Site C hydro-electric dam. Column by Vaughn Palmer, Vancouver Sun, Sep 14, 2020
[The state-run B.C. Hydro utility admitted six weeks ago to stability problems under the foundations of the ten billion dollar-plus Site C dam on the Peace River in northeast BC. It had previously disclosed in December 2019 what it described as a “previously identified geological risk”, namely, the well-known fragility of the shale rock foundation of the dam. The New Democratic Party government in Victoria is refusing to disclose what it knew and when as it ponders a snap election to ride the false popular belief that the government has handled well the Covid-19 pandemic. The Site C hydro-electric dam was conceived to power yet more ecology-wrecking natural resource extraction projects, including natural gas fracking and liquefaction. For full background on the looming debacle, see the entries dated Aug 24, 2020 on this archived page of A Socialist In Canada.].
Related:  BC Hydro’s radical, risky makeover of the Site C dam, by Ben Parfitt, The Tyee, Sep 11, 2020  (Ben Parfitt is a resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, B.C. office.)  BC Hydro says it has just discovered new, costly problems for the Site C hydroelectric dam megaproject. In fact, engineers have known about them for decades. BC Hydro knew 30 years before it started building Site C that its chosen location for the most expensive publicly-funded infrastructure project in British Columbia’s history had big problems. By the 1980s, it had done tests showing that the ground at Site C had serious flaws “due to the very weak sedimentary rock” in the area. The revelation is contained in a report co-written by six professional engineers and issued in October 2016…

Bob Woodward’s Trump revelations raise questions about Canada’s response to COVID-19, CBC News, Sep 14, 2020  Canada and the U.S. share intelligence — so what did the federal government know, and when?
[This is a rare examination by Canada’s loyal state broadcaster into the response by government and top public health officials in Canada to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as it began to loom in January 2020. That response can only be described as criminally negligent. The country was assured by authorities in late January that there was little reason for concern. The federal government did not begin to restrict (by no means ending) cross-border travel until five days after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic (on March 11). Canada has suffered 9,172 deaths from Covid-19 and countless harm and disruption to survivors as well as the general population that has not fallen ill. The country has twice the rate of death from Covid-19 as Germany, which has hardly been a model. Eighty one per cent of deaths in Canada were near-defenseless elders, most trapped in privatized, negligently operated care homes or in poorly-funded and overcrowded public facilities. Yet corporate and state media in Canada never tire of stating that Canada has ‘fared well’ in its Covid-19 response. Opposition parties in the federal and provincial governments accept that verdict, minor quibling aside. Canada is among the wealthy countries practicing ‘vaccine power plays’, aiming to use their wealth to purchase (gain privileged access) for their citizens the vaccines that pass phase three clinical trials (see news item immediately below).]

Defeating COVID-19 calls for global solidarity, not a vaccine power play. Open letter by the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research and the Canadian Society for International Health, September 11, 2020. Read the open letter here. Read a related Canadian Press news story here.
Related news reports:
*  The Covid-19 vaccine gamble: where bets have been placed and why.
[This news report appears in The Guardian on September 11 and provides detail on where the Covax project stands. The Guardian is a pro-Western daily published in the UK which plays a double game by publishing extensive environmental analysis and occasional left-wing analysis.].
*  China ramps up global vaccine support through COVAX project while U.S. shuns the collective effort, report in Global Times, Sep 3, 2020

The global race for a COVID-19 vaccine is underway. Here’s Canada strategy to emerge a winner, Toronto Star, Sep 6, 2020  [The Toronto Star introduces this article as follows: ‘This is the first in an ongoing series of stories — The Road to a Vaccine — that will look at Canada’s quest to secure a COVID-19 vaccine amid the global pandemic, as well as the hurdles and history it faces to do so.’ The article describes Canada’s privileged and greedy quest to obtain its own supply of Covid-19 vaccine-to-be-developed. The article mentions the contrasting, ‘COVAX’ project led by  the World Health Organization, which is a cooperative venture to ensure, among other goals, that poor countries receive equal access to whatever vaccines are produced (and pass clinical trials) by country health care systems or by pharmaceutical companies. The article falsely presents Canada as a participant in COVAX. It is not. Months ago, Canada joined a list of wealthy countries formally ‘expressing interest’ in the project. But many of these ‘interested’ countries, including Canada, failed to meet the August 31 deadline to pay a required financial commitment. (The deadline has been extended to September 18 due to the large number of other deliquent wealthy countries. The U.S. has formally refused to join COVAX.) The article mentions the Covid-19 vaccine that Russia has developed, but fails to mention the recent report by The Lancet medical journal reporting positive, initial results. (See the ‘related’ items immediately below and the report on COVAX on this website page dated Sept 2.) ].
Related:
*  Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine shows positive antibody response in initial trials, Reuters, Sep 4, 2020
* The Russian vaccine for COVID-19, by Talha Khan Burki, The Lancet, Sep 4, 2020

‘Endless growth on a finite planet is suicide: Director Jeff Gibbs of ‘Planet of the Humans’ documentary film will host live, virtual screenings followed by Q&A in eight Canadian cities in October, Toronto Star, Sep 8, 2020  The first screening in Canada will take place on October 19 in Toronto. After that, in order: Ottawa, Montreal Hamilton, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, Halifax. Schedule and ticket sales at Ticketmaster. 

Canadian gov’t to review why it sidelined the country’s pandemic warning agency back in 2018. Report in Globe and Mail, Sep 8, 2020  …Wesley Wark, an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa, said the government lacked good intelligence on the outbreak in January and February 2020 which could have allowed it to act faster and better prepare. A fully functioning Global Public Health Information Network (GPHIN) was intended to serve this purpose, and potentially detect signs of a problem in China much earlier than Dec. 31. Instead, throughout January, February and much of March, the government determined that the virus posed minimal risk to Canada. Public Health repeatedly classified the threat from the virus as “Low,” according to the department’s risk assessments…

Daily Covid-19 cases in Alberta as of Sep 5, 2020

Alberta reports 164 new COVID-19 cases on Sep 4, CTV News, Sep 5, 2020
Related:
*  Ontario reports 169 new coronavirus cases on Sept 5, marking largest increase in more than six weeks, Global News, Sep 6, 2020
*  Anti-maskers are returning to Toronto’s Cherry Beach this weekend for an all-night party, Blog TO, Sep 5, 2020
*  B.C. reports 121 new COVID-19 cases on Sep 4, CBC News, Sep 5, 2020  …The curve of overall infections is trending upward with a record one-day number of 124 infections announced by health officials on August 28…  (According to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) surveillance report for August 29 to September 3, the number of new cases reported this week (669) increased by 122 cases from the previous week (547 cases).  Global News, Sep 4, 2020)

Enough with John A. Macdonald. Where are the monuments to Indigenous people and leaders?, by Tom McMahon, The Tyee, Sep 3, 2020  Canada was tasked with building them by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and we haven’t.  (Tom McMahon is former general counsel of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, former executive secretary of the Manitoba Aboriginal Justice Inquiry, and former senior counsel at Elections Canada.)

Canada still equivocating on its commitment to COVAX, the international Covid-19 vaccine alliance, while simultaneously using its financial clout to guarantee future vaccine supply from U.S. pharmaceuticals (updated on Sep 3.)
[COVAX is an international partnership aiming to speed vaccine development, secure doses for all countries, and distribute them to the most high-risk segment of each population. It is led by three organizations—the World Health Organization; GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance; and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). There are 172 countries involved. The following is from an August 24, 2020 report published by WHO:

Eighty higher-income economies, which would finance the vaccines from their own public finance budgets, have so far submitted ‘Expressions of Interest’ ahead of the deadline of 31 August for confirmation of intent to participate. The higher-income countries would partner with 92 low- and middle-income countries that will be supported by the ‘Advance Market Commitment’ (AMC) if it meets its funding targets. Together, this group of 172 countries represents more than 70% of the world’s population.

[One month ago, Canadian Press reported that Canada was a “part of” COVAX, citing Karina Gould, Canada’s international development minister. It was a clever use of words by the minister, repeated by a gullible reporter. Canada is part of the 80 wealthier countries that have formally ‘expressed interest’. But 43 of the 80 ‘interested’ countries missed the August 31 deadline to pay a financial commitment, including Canada. So the deadline has been extended to September 18. A spokesperson for Karina Gould says he is sure Canada will pay up  by the new, extended deadline date. (source: Canadian Press) The U.S. government is formally boycotting COVAX. Simultaneously, Canada is following a different vaccine path, by virtue of its financial clout. On August 31, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a special announcement that Canada has struck an agreement with two U.S. pharmaceutical companies (Johnson & Johnson and Novafax) for a guaranteed supply of the vaccines the companies develop (subject to approval of the vaccines by Health Canada). Earlier in August, similar deals were announced with Moderna and Pfizer. Unlike its allies in other wealthy countries, the Canadian government is not revealing how much it is paying or other details.]

Canadian oilsands [sic] tailings ponds leaking and federal enforcement is unclear says report by Commission on Environmental Co-operation, a body set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canadian Press, Sep 3, 2020

Trudeau tells CBC audience in Vancouver that his government’s murderous ‘war on drugs’ will continue despite record numbers of deaths from injection drug epidemic. CBC News, Sep 3, 2020   [Justin Trudeau surprised–and outraged–many of his would-be supporters when he told a CBC Vancouver radio audience on September 2 that his government’s policy condemning to death-by-inaction those addicted to opioid drugs rests unchanged. More people in Canada are dying from drug poisonings (so-called overdoses) than from Covid-19. There were more than 15,000 opioid-related deaths between January 2016 and December 2019 in Canada; death rates are up more than 25 per cent since the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in March 2020.  In British Columbia, six people are dying per day from drug poisonings; the province has had two record-high monthly deaths from injection drugs–177 in June and 175 in July. Alberta (and here) is suffering more than four deaths per day. In Ontario, “preliminary data” shows Ontario had 879 confirmed and probable opioid-related deaths from January to May, reports the Globe and Mail on September 2. (British Columbia, with one third the population of Ontario, had 557 deaths during the same five-month period. The ministry of health in Ontario is notoriously late in publishing its month-by-month figures.) The premiers of Ontario and Alberta are opposed to the proven lifesaving practice of safe drug injection sites.]