The Liberal government is set to introduce long-awaited legislation Thursday to enshrine the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canadian law.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the 2019 election campaign to introduce such a bill, developed with Indigenous people, by the end of this year.
The bill is expected to echo a private member’s bill introduced by former NDP MP Romeo Saganash, which the House of Commons passed two years ago.
That bill stalled in the Senate, where Conservative senators argued it could have unintended legal and economic consequences, and then died when Parliament dissolved.
The UN declaration, which Canada endorsed in 2010, affirms the rights of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination and to their language, culture and traditional lands.
It also spells out the need for free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous Peoples on anything that infringes on their lands or rights.
The key witness for the defence in Toronto’s van attack trial is set to testify for the fourth straight day on Thursday.
Psychiatrist Dr. Alexander Westphal has stopped short of saying Alek Minassian is not criminally responsible for his actions on April 23, 2018.
CityNews reporter Adrian Ghobrial is covering the trial, follow his tweets below:
He says Minassian does not truly understand the moral wrongfulness of killing 10 people by using a van as a weapon.
But Westphal says criminal responsibility is a legal opinion, not a psychiatric one.
Minassian has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 of attempted murder.
He argues he should be found not criminally responsible due to autism spectrum disorder.
Minassian’s state of mind is the sole issue at trial after he admitted to planning and carrying out the attack.
British officials authorized a COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use on Wednesday, greenlighting the world’s first shot against the virus that’s backed by rigorous science and taking a major step toward eventually ending the pandemic.
The go-ahead for the vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech comes as the virus surges again in the United States and Europe, putting pressure on hospitals and morgues in some places and forcing new rounds of restrictions that have devastated economies.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, which licenses drugs in the U.K., recommended the vaccine could be used after it reviewed the results of clinical trials that showed the vaccine was 95% effective overall _ and that it also offered significant protection for older people, among those most at risk of dying from the disease. But the vaccine remains experimental while final testing is done.
“Help is on its way,” British Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC, adding that the situation would start to improve in the spring.
“We now have a vaccine. We’re the first country in the world to have one formally clinically authorized but, between now and then, we’ve got to hold on, we’ve got to hold our resolve,” he said.
Other countries aren’t far behind: Regulators in the United States and the European Union also are vetting the Pfizer shot along with a similar vaccine made by competitor Moderna Inc. British regulators also are considering another shot made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Hancock said Britain expects to begin receiving the first shipment of 800,000 doses “within days,” and people will begin receiving shots as soon as the National Health Service gets the vaccine.
Doses everywhere are scarce, and initial supplies will be rationed until more is manufactured in the first several months of next year.
A government committee will release details of vaccination priorities later Wednesday, but Hancock said nursing home residents, people over 80, and healthcare workers and other care workers will be the first to receive the shot.
Pfizer said it would immediately begin shipping limited supplies to the U.K. _ and has been gearing up for even wider distribution if given a similar nod by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a decision expected as early as next week.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla called the U.K. decision “a historic moment.”
“We are focusing on moving with the same level of urgency to safely supply a high-quality vaccine around the world,” Bourla said in a statement.
While the U.K. has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough for 20 million people, it’s not clear how many will arrive by year’s end. Hancock said the U.K. expects to receive “millions of doses” by the end of this year, adding that the actual number will depend on how fast Pfizer can produce the vaccine.
One concern about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is that it must be stored and shipped at ultra-cold temperatures of around minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit), adding to the challenge of distributing the vaccine around the world.
Pfizer says it has developed shipping containers that use dry ice to keep the vaccine cool. GPS-enabled sensors will allow the company to track each shipment and ensure they stay cold, the company says.
“Pfizer has vast experience and expertise in cold-chain shipping and has an established infrastructure to supply the vaccine worldwide, including distribution hubs that can store vaccine doses for up to six months,” the company said in a statement.
The company also says it has agreed to work with other vaccine makers to ensure there is sufficient supply and a range of vaccines, “including those suitable for global access.”
Every country has different rules for determining when an experimental vaccine is safe and effective enough to use. Intense political pressure to be the first to roll out a rigorously scientifically tested shot colored the race in the U.S. and Britain, even as researchers pledged to cut no corners. In contrast, China and Russia have offered different vaccinations to their citizens ahead of late-stage testing.
The shots made by U.S.-based Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech were tested in tens of thousands of people. And while that study isn’t complete, early results suggest the vaccine is 95% effective at preventing mild to severe COVID-19 disease. The companies told regulators that of the first 170 infections detected in study volunteers, only eight were among people who’d received the actual vaccine and the rest had gotten a dummy shot.
“This is an extraordinarily strong protection,” Dr. Ugur Sahin, BioNTech’s CEO, recently told The Associated Press.
The companies also reported no serious side effects, although vaccine recipients may experience temporary pain and flu-like reactions immediately after injections.
Final testing must still be completed. Still to be determined is whether the Pfizer-BioNTech shots protect against people spreading the coronavirus without showing symptoms. Another question is how long protection lasts.
The vaccine also has been tested in only a small number of children, none younger than 12, and there’s no information on its effects in pregnant women.
A woman and a child have been taken to hospital after a two-alarm house fire in Brampton.
Firefighters were called to Nevada Court near Bovaird Drive just before 8 p.m. Tuesday.
It’s believed the fire began in the basement. The woman and child were rescued from the basement. An occupant upstairs was able to get out and call emergency services.
The woman suffered critical injuries while the child was taken to hospital in serious condition. Their conditions have both been upgraded to stable.
Fire crews have extinguished the majority of the fire. The Brampton fire investigator has also been called in.
One man has died and a woman has been rushed to hospital after being shot in broad daylight on Tuesday in the north end of the city.
Police were called to Dufferin Street and Lawrence Avenue just after 3:30 p.m. for reports of a shooting.
The male victim was pronounced dead on the scene. The woman has been transported to hospital in life-threatening condition.
Both victims were reportedly in a vehicle at the time of the shooting, but it’s unclear if it was stationary or moving.
Officers are looking for a male suspect wearing a grey sweat suit with a hood who left the area in a grey hatchback.
Homicide investigators are being called to the scene.
Toronto’s medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, is calling a second consecutive day of record COVID-19 cases a “blunt warning” that must be heeded to stop the spread of the virus.
The province earlier reported 727 new cases for Toronto, but in an update later Tuesday, de Villa boosted that number to 761.
“This figure represents a new high for a second consecutive day in the city,” she said in a release. “Today’s case counts are a blunt warning. COVID-19 continues to spread easily and widely.”
De Villa said research of COVID-19 data in the city shows that 1 in 5 infected people, or 21 per cent, confirmed that they had people visit their home, or went inside someone else’s home, where there were 10 people or less during the period they acquired the infection.
Other findings among infected people in Toronto:
- 21 per cent identified their spouse or partner as the source of illness
- 16 per cent identified a friend as the source of illness
- 16 per cent identified a co-worker as the source of illness.
In total, 35 per cent of cases reporting close contact indicated that their close contact with known cases were only non-household contacts. This underscores guidance to keep contact within your household,” De Villa’s release states.
A psychiatrist hired by the defence is set to continue his testimony today at the trial for the man who killed 10 people in Toronto’s van attack.
Dr. Alexander Westphal says Minassian suffered from a lack of empathy and struggled to understood others his entire life.
Westphal is testifying on behalf of the defence and is expected to say Alek Minassian is not criminally responsible for his actions on April 23, 2018, due to autism spectrum disorder.
Minassian has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 of attempted murder.
He has admitted to planning and carrying out the attacks with his state of mind at the time being the sole issue at trial.
Last week, Westphal refused to testify if court didn’t give in to his demands to seal his videotaped interviews with Minassian and play the clips to court in secret.
If buses are parked because of the snow, learning is going to look a little different for some students and staff in the GTA this year.
These changes stem from the new way of learning due to the pandemic.
If an inclement weather day is declared and transportation is cancelled, York Region District School Board and Durham District School Board secondary students attending class in person will move to online learning.
York Catholic District and Dufferin-Peel Catholic District boards have said schools will close and impacted students will be taught remotely.
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For Peel District School Board, in-class instruction will be cancelled for schools, and staff and students will switch to online. Child care programs will remain open.
In Durham, there is no changes for elementary students, they’ll still have to attend school.
Elementary students in the York District School Board will be given learning activities.
The YRDSB and Dufferin-Peel Catholic’s said decisions will be made by 6 a.m. DDSB and York Catholic’s school board have said 7 a.m.
The Toronto District School Board and Toronto Catholic District School Board are in talks about how those days will look when buses are cancelled.
Students currently learning online will operate as business as usual.
The family of a woman who died after an altercation with security guards at Toronto General Hospital last May is demanding accountability after learning new, “gut-wrenching” details about her death.
An Ontario Coroner’s report found that Danielle Stephanie Warriner, 43, died as a result of a brain injury consistent with “restraint asphyxia” after a violent struggle with four guards that was partially captured on surveillance video.
The Coroner’s investigation revealed that a surveillance camera was “purposely turned away” during the altercation.
Warriner died less than a few weeks later.
“Something’s got to happen,” Warriner’s sister, Denise told CityNews. “Some action needs to be taken.”
Warriner, who family refer to as “Stephanie” was in the lobby of the hospital on May 11 when she was approached by a team of four security guards. According to the report, a “verbal exchange” took place between her and a female guard before she is pushed against a wall.
At that point “video footage moves away from the scene” and the next two-and-a-half minutes aren’t captured.
After seeking answers for months, Toronto police allowed Denise to view the security footage of the incident that does exist.
“One of the security guards aggressively and violently grabs my sister and crushes her face first into a concrete wall,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced gut-wrenching horror. In my life, I didn’t understand what those words meant until I saw that video. You can’t help but replay those traumatic images, over and over, in your mind. It haunts me.”
When the security camera returns to its position, the coroner’s report said Stephanie “appears limp” while she’s handcuffed and put in a wheelchair.
They then move into another hallway near some service elevators where she is given CPR and resuscitated after 10 minutes. At that point, she was intubated and transferred to intensive care.
The report determined that “this case fits death due to restraint asphyxia” and she died as a result of a brain injury due to a lack of oxygen.
Warriner did suffer from a pre-existing respiratory condition and had been in the hospital twice in the weeks leading up to the incident. She was also diagnosed as bipolar, had mental health issues and dealt with drug use in the past but her sister said she was seeking help. “I will say she tried really hard,” Denise said. “She was part of different groups. She was committed.”
According to a spokesperson from the University Health Network, two staff members involved with the case are no longer working with UHN. Two others have reportedly faced disciplinary action.
In a statement sent to UHN employees last week, President and CEO Kevin Smith acknowledged the incident saying: “to have this happen while Ms. Warriner was a patient in our hospital is disturbing and distressing to everyone.”
The message refers to Toronto police involvement and said “we will offer to meet with the family to go over what we have learned, the recommendations from the investigations, and the actions we must take in response” when it’s concluded.
“What the video showed me is that there is a culture of this behavior,” Denise said. “This is a culture and even the persons who might not have been directly involved in the attack, there’s a complicity here.”
Denise’s expectation is that criminal charges will be laid and some sort of internal review will take place at UHN.
“I won’t give up,” she said. “I will continue to fight for her and for the rest of us. There needs to be accountability and change.”
Toronto police have not yet responded to a request for additional information.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s first fall mini-budget finds new funds for families and businesses and scratches a longtime provincial itch over transfer payments as she tries to find a delicate balance between pandemic anxiety and political prudence.
Freeland defended the federal government’s record deficit of more than $381 billion as affordable — given low interest rates — and necessary and accused the former Conservative government of withdrawing stimulus too quickly after the last recession 12 years ago.
“As we have learned from previous recessions, the risk of providing too little support now outweighs that of providing too much,” Freeland said.
“We will not repeat the mistakes of the years following the Great Recession of 2008.”
However Freeland responded to calls for some sense of when the federal largesse will end only by promising what she calls “fiscal guardrails” based on employment numbers, to guide when post-pandemic federal stimulus will start to be phased out.
“These data-driven triggers will tell us when the job of building back from the COVID-19 recession is accomplished, and we can bring one-off stimulus spending to an end,” Freeland said.
Freeland is also using the fall update to respond to calls from numerous political critics and interest groups with funds for parents of young children, aid for hard-hit sectors like tourism and entertainment, and another $1 billion to help provinces with the long-term care homes that have left our oldest citizens tragically vulnerable to COVID-19.
Fully aware that the Liberal government needs support from at least one other party to stay alive she handed the NDP another win by extending the federal interest holiday for student and apprentice loans through to the end of the next fiscal year. The Liberals stopped requiring interest payments earlier this year but that holiday ended Oct. 1.
A week ago the House of Commons unanimously backed a motion from NDP MP Heather McPherson to extend the interest-free period through to the end of next May. Freeland is going even further and eliminating the interest on the federal portion of the Canada Student Loan and Canada Apprenticeship Loan programs for all of 2021-22.
Thus far the NDP has been the only party showing a willingness to negotiate with the government to support it during confidence measures. In September the NDP supported the throne speech after succeeding in getting the Liberals to include paid sick leave and increased pandemic aid to individuals.
Freeland also threw out another olive branch in Ottawa’s often difficult with provincial premiers by promising to answer their years-long call to overhaul the fiscal stabilization fund that sends federal cash to provinces facing serious drops in revenue. The program offers federal aid to provinces that see a drop in non-resource related revenues of more than five per cent compared to the year before, or more than a 50 per cent drop in resource revenues. But the payments have been capped at $60 per person in a province for more than three decades.
The premiers made the program the target of a request to the federal government almost exactly a year ago, issuing a joint statement out of their December meeting in 2019 for the fiscal stabilization fund to be changed. Freeland’s office said at the time she was open to a discussion about it.
The issue has been particularly acute for Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, whose province accessed the program in 2015-16 and 2016-17, during a significant drop in oil prices. The province received $251 million in each of those years. Freeland intends to increase the payments to $170 per person retroactive to 2019-20, and will index the amount in line with economic growth going forward. There will be other changes to the program, including how eligibility is calculated.
Alberta would get more than $700 million under the program if it qualified now.
When the premiers made their call, the expectation was no province would face a serious downturn in 2020. Nobody knew the virus that would cause the COVID-19 pandemic was already starting to spread in China. Alberta alone is projecting a revenue drop of more than 10 per cent now.
