CALGARY — Canada’s environment minister says extreme weather conditions across the country should be a wake-up call for people resisting taking action against climate change.
Wildfires are raging out of control, forcing residents out of their homes, in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
A state of emergency goes into effect in B.C. on Wednesday to prepare for potential mass evacuations as nearly 300 fires burned across that province and threatened communities. Two people died in the village of Lytton, B.C., earlier this month after much of the community was destroyed by fire.
Farmers in the Prairies are also suffering from severe drought conditions, while weather alerts are in effect across Western Canada due to a dense cloud of smoke.
“I think the events that we’re seeing this summer are probably underlying that even more for Canadians,” Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Tuesday in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“The tragic event in Lytton, I think, was quite shocking for many people … certainly the forest fires, but also the flooding that we’ve seen in the last number of years.”
Wilkinson was in Calgary to announce a mitigation plan related to the 2013 floods in southern Alberta that led to five deaths and billions of dollars in damage.
He said all of the data suggests the extreme weather won’t be improving in the future.
“I think people are starting to understand that it’s even more proximate to them, that the impacts of climate change are with us already,” he said.
“We need to take action to make sure we’re not making the problem worse but, of course, we’re also going to need to learn to adapt to the changes that are with us already.”
Wilkinson, who grew up in Saskatchewan and now serves as the MP for North Vancouver, said he understands why some people still fight against taking action on climate change.
He said, however, that it’s a reality that extreme weather events will be more frequent and more intense in the future.
Wilkinson said the time to take action is now.
“I think it’s an opportunity to come together as Canadians and to double down in terms of being part of what has to be an international consensus and international solution,” he said.
“I think it is the defining issue of our generation and certainly of our children, and I think that Canada has an opportunity to play an important role.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2021.
Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press
Toronto police have issued an arrest warrant for a 32-year-old Toronto man in connection with an alleged “deliberate” fatal hit-and-run.
Police said they were called just after 9 p.m. to the Polson and Cherry Streets area for a report that a pedestrian had been struck by a truck.
When officers arrived, one of the victims had no vital signs and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
A second person that police said was also struck by the vehicle suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver of the truck that police allege was involved in the collision had already fled the scene when emergency services had arrived.
Investigators said there was an argument prior to the collision and one man allegedly got into a pick-up truck and “deliberately struck the pedestrian.”
Following an investigation, police have obtained an arrest warrant for Robert Cada for second-degree murder and attempted murder.
He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, blue jean shorts and white shoes. The vehicle believed to be involved in the incident has since been recovered.
The victim of the incident has not yet identified by police. A memorial has been started close to the site where the incident occurred.
Former Green leader Elizabeth May is speaking out after months of near-silence on the internal strife engulfing the party she headed for 13 years.
In a statement to media Tuesday afternoon, May says “rumours” about her involvement in party power struggles have pushed her to clarify she has no role in any of the Greens’ governing bodies.
Members of the federal council, which governs most of the party’s affairs, have clashed with leader Annamie Paul for months over issues that range from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to staff layoffs and funding for Paul’s riding campaign in Toronto Centre.
May says she did have first-hand knowledge of Green MP Jenica Atwin’s defection to the Liberals last month, a loss of one-third of the Green caucus that May called “painful” but no cause for “misplaced anger, blame and name-calling.”
May says she fully supports the Green party, adding simply that “our leader is Annamie Paul and only our members have authority to call that into question.”
Falling short of a full-throated endorsement, the statement comes a day after Paul held a news conference to show her party has pushed past a period of tumultuous acrimony ahead of a likely election this year.
The lingering tensions have left Greens in limbo and Paul reeling from a temporarily sidelined threat to her leadership.
Paul confirmed Monday that a non-confidence motion against her planned for Tuesday was cancelled, and that no similar motions will be proposed by the current federal council or before the next party convention.
“We need to pull together for what appears to be an imminent election campaign,” May said Tuesday.
A man is dead after he was found shot at a plaza in Toronto’s west end early Tuesday morning.
Emergency crews were called to Westown Plaza, at Dixon Road and Islington Avenue, just after midnight for reports of a man shot and laying on the ground.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
It is not yet known if the man was shot at the plaza.
There is no word on suspects.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario has dismissed both the defence and the Crown’s appeals in the case of an off-duty Toronto cop who was convicted of assaulting a young Black man.
In November 2020, Michael Theriault was sentenced to nine months in jail for brutally beating Dafonte Miller in December 2016, leaving him with a ruptured eye. He was also sentenced to 12 months of probation following his jail term, along with a five-year weapons prohibition.
He was acquitted of aggravated assault and obstruction of justice charges as was his brother Christian Theriault.
In May of this year, his lawyers challenged the verdict, saying the assault conviction was unreasonable based on the evidence, and Theriault’s nine-month jail sentence is outside the normal range.
The Crown appealed Theriault’s acquittal on the other charges, arguing that an Ontario judge made errors in assessing issues related to self-defence and unlawful arrest. However, the Crown stated that it would seek a new trial only if the defence appeal succeeded and his conviction for common assault was not upheld.
Justice of Appeal Michael Tulloch said the Crown’s appeal was dismissed without considering its merits, given their position on a retrial, because the defence appeal was dismissed as well.
Dafonte Millers lawyers Julian Falconer and Asha James held a virtual press conference on Monday afternoon with Miller and his mother Lisa in attendance.
Falconer said he was glad to see that Justice Tulloch acknowledged the role of anti-Black racism in the case and recognized that the trial judge had taken that important social context into account. James added that the judgment recognizes that anti-Black racism impacts the way Black communities feel about and respond to the police and how policing is handled in those communities.
Miller called the decision to uphold Theriault’s conviction a huge step forward.
“The acknowledgement of racism in police interactions, not only in my situation but other people who go through the same situations, was very important,” he said, “I’m grateful for all the hard work of the Crown and everyone who has been behind me, helping this stuff go forward.”
Lisa Miller said she was glad the ordeal was finally coming to a close.
“As much as it hurt me that Michael Theriault himself couldn’t just accept, apologize and give us something to heal, I’m just grateful that we’re at the point now where we can actually move on and try to rebuild,” she said.
Falconer also lambasted the justice system that allowed what he called “the real bad actors” — people he alleges to be involved in covering up the case to protect Theriault — to entirely escape any repercussions.
“Our system doesn’t really want to hold them accountable. So the chiefs of police who covered up this crime against Dafonte Miller have retired … inspectors who magically didn’t connect with SIU and furthered the coverup have retired out of accountability,” he said. “And so while this is an important day in respect of Michael Theriault, the story has not been told and will not be told until those who were in charge, who orchestrated the coverup of these crimes are held accountable.”
He added that the civil action being taken by Miller and his family does have the potential to hold these “bad actors” accountable through private litigation.
“But it is an embarrassment that retiring out of accountability is possible in this province and it is proof that the system is rigged,” he said.
Ontario colleges and universities should prepare for all in-person classes and activities to resume this fall without capacity limits or physical distancing, the government says, though many institutions will still use a mix of in-person and online learning.
The Ministry of Colleges and Universities has told the institutions to have plans for how learning will continue in the event of COVID-19 outbreaks.
“While we must remain vigilant and responsive to the trajectory of COVID-19, I am optimistic that the (post-secondary education) sector will resume many of the cherished in-person experiences that have been on pause for so long,” deputy minister Shelley Tapp wrote in a recent memo to the institutions.
Tapp said it’s “anticipated” that all in-person instruction and on-campus activities will be allowed again this fall, after more than a year since they were paused due to the pandemic.
Universities and colleges will still have to follow all public health and workplace safety rules, including requiring masks indoors, Tapp said.
The schools will still have flexibility to offer teaching in a variety of ways that best suit their needs, Tapp wrote, including virtual and hybrid models.
The University of Windsor is planning for on-campus activities to resume and for a mix of face-to-face, hybrid and online courses. A spokeswoman said a variety of factors went into deciding which methods would be used for which courses, including class sizes, student population, facilities, and whether the course relies on lectures or labs.
“For example, students in fine arts-acting have a strong need to have their course material delivered in person, while other students who receive their courses in a more traditional lecture-style way do not,” said Lori Lewis.
Capacity limits and distancing are currently part of the university’s fall plan, but Lewis said it is constantly evolving.
McMaster University is offering courses that are listed as either in-person, online, virtual, or a combination. It is telling students that for “in-person” courses, “there will be varying levels of in-person engagement throughout the term.”
Seneca College is also planning a mix of four approaches: online, in person, hybrid — which will involve some online instruction and some hands-on lab time in class — and flexible, which involves students choosing when to watch a lecture online and when to attend in person, for example.
In case of COVID-19 outbreaks, institutions must have a “continuity of education” plan ready by September, including information on health protocols in the event of an emergency and how instruction will continue if in-person learning is disrupted.
Specific guidance from the ministry on measures such as masks, screening and cleaning is set to be issued in early August.
The ministry is encouraging schools to use rapid antigen testing for routine screening of asymptomatic people, as well as wastewater surveillance for levels of COVID-19.
The NDP’s colleges and universities critic, Laura Mae Lindo, said resuming classes “is more complicated than just opening the doors,” and called for the government to provide increased funding, including for onsite rapid testing and upgraded ventilation systems.
The province announced approximately $100 million in March for post-secondary schools that have lost revenue while incurring additional pandemic-related expenses.
The Council of Ontario Universities has said the institutions are facing a shortfall of $500 million related to the pandemic.
Provincewide, there were 130 new cases of COVID-19 reported Monday and no new deaths. Eighteen of the new cases are in Toronto, 17 in Peel Region, 16 in the Region of Waterloo, 14 in Hamilton and 10 each in Grey Bruce and Middlesex-London.
There were 11,567 tests completed in the previous day. There are 151 people in intensive care in hospitals due to COVID-related critical illness and 94 patients are on ventilators.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said 91,320 vaccine doses were administered in the previous day, for a total of more than 18.2 million.
OTTAWA — The federal government is expecting to receive about 7.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines this week, as it adjusts its distribution strategy amid waning vaccination rates and substantial supply.
The new deliveries will include about 3.1 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and four million doses of Moderna.
“In the coming weeks, we will cross a symbolic threshold of 66 million doses, signalling that there are enough doses in Canada to vaccinate every currently eligible Canadian,” Brig.-Gen. Krista Brodie said Thursday at a virtual news conference from Ottawa.
Brodie, who is overseeing the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the country, said Canada is moving to a “more nuanced” approach as the supply of doses is on the verge of outstripping demand.
More than two million doses of vaccine are already being held back because provinces have said they can’t use them yet, she said.
The move marks a shift away from the early strategy of sending doses around the country as quickly as possible after they arrive.
“As we pivot from limited supply to sufficient supply, we are implementing a more nuanced approach to ensure that the vaccines are stewarded in a manner that best supports Canada’s enduring domestic needs, as well as optimizes options for supporting global vaccination efforts,” Brodie said.
Provinces can draw more doses from the reserved amount when and if they need to do so.
Canada’s vaccination rate remains among the highest in the world, but is starting to slow as the pool of people still looking for a first or second dose shrinks.
As of Friday, almost 79 per cent of eligible Canadians had received at least one dose of a vaccine and more than 50 per cent were fully vaccinated.
Canada has already said it plans to donate the remaining 17.7 million doses in expected shipments of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the COVAX global vaccine-sharing alliance.
Those doses will be shipped to developing countries that are nowhere close to the level of immunization Canada now enjoys. In Africa, about three per cent of the population has now received at least one dose, and 1.4 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, warned countries such as Canada, where vaccinations are high and case loads under control, to remember the pandemic is not over.
On Thursday, the WHO reported the number of COVID-19 deaths in Africa jumped 43 per cent over the last week, as the Delta variant continued its devastating spread.
Several provinces indicated Thursday that they’ve had to destroy some doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that expired July 1 before they could be used. Health Canada had already extended the expiry date for those doses by one month.
Ontario’s Ministry of Health said Thursday it had 3,190 doses of AstraZeneca that would be destroyed, Prince Edward Island said it was destroying 3,200 doses and New Brunswick 960.
Demand for AstraZeneca plummeted in May after the National Advisory Committee on Immunization said the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were preferred because they weren’t associated with the rare but serious side-effect of blood clots potentially linked to AstraZeneca.
Canada has yet to say if or when it will donate any doses of Pfizer or Moderna.
Procurement Minister Anita Anand said 95 million doses of the two vaccines will be delivered by the end of September. That is at least 20 million doses more than Canada could use even if 100 per cent of Canadians chose to get fully vaccinated.
Most polls suggest about 80 per cent of Canadians will be vaccinated. Currently, the vaccines aren’t authorized for kids under the age of 12, although there’s hope that vaccine trials on younger children will be finished by the end of the summer.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Thursday Canada will keep enough doses to ensure supply for younger children when they become eligible. There are about 4.8 million kids in Canada under the age of 12.
“We will never do anything that will jeopardize our ability to have, quickly and safely, access to all the vaccines necessary to immunize any eligible Canadian,” LeBlanc said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2021.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press
Toronto police say they are investigating two separate stabbing incidents.
The first incident occurred outside of a bar in the Coxwell Avenue and Gerrard Street East area at around 7:26 p.m., police said.
Police said they were called to the area for a report of a fight between two men– and that a man had been stabbed.
Officers found a man suffering from stab wounds at the scene. Police said he has serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said they have one man in custody but are searching for one more suspect.
The suspect is described as male, short in height and had a beard. He was seen wearing a grey shirt with an unknown emblem on the left chest and blue jeans. He was also wearing a mask, police said.
Police investigate North York stabbing call
The second stabbing call was in North York at around 8:28 p.m.
Police said they were called to the Yonge Street and Drewry Avenue area, just north of Finch Avenue East, for a report of two men fighting.
When officers arrived, police said they found a man who had been stabbed.
EMS said they transported the victim to the hospital and he is in stable condition.
Police said they believe a suspect fled into the subway system.
No other information has been released by the police at this time.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the police directly. Tips can also be left anonymously with Crime Stoppers.
Two South African soccer players have become the first athletes inside the Olympic Village to test positive for COVID-19, with the Tokyo Games opening on Friday.
Organizers confirmed the positive tests on Sunday but didn’t identify the athletes other than to say they were non-Japanese. The South African Football Association later confirmed there were three COVID-19 cases in its delegation – two players and a video analyst.
The players were defender Thabiso Monyane and midfielder Kamohelo Mahlatsi, SAFA said.
The South African soccer squad had been quarantined and was waiting for the results of further tests conducted on players and backroom staff on Sunday, team manager Mxolisi Sibam said in a statement.
South Africa is due to play Japan in its first game of the men’s soccer competition on Thursday at Tokyo Stadium.
Six athletes and two staff members from the Great Britain athletics team are self-isolating after being identified as close contacts of an individual who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, the British Olympic Association announced Sunday.
Organizers also said Sunday that another athlete had tested positive but this person was not residing in the Olympic Village. This athlete was also identified as “non-Japanese.”
Also on Sunday, the first International Olympic Committee member was reported as positive. He recorded a positive test on Saturday upon entering a Tokyo airport.
The International Olympic Committee confirmed the test and identified him as Ryu Seung-min of South Korea. He won an Olympic gold medal in table tennis in the 2004 Olympics.
He was reportedly being held in isolation. Reports said he was asymptomatic.
IOC President Thomas Bach said last week there was “zero” risk of athletes in the village passing on the virus to Japanese or other residents of the village.
Former distance runner Tegla Loroupe, the chief of mission of the IOC’s Refugee Olympic Team, has tested positive for COVID-19, two people with knowledge of her condition have told The Associated Press.
Loroupe tested positive before the team was to depart its Doha, Qatar, training base for Tokyo. The team has delayed its arrival in Tokyo and many are expected to start arriving in the next few days.
Loroupe is expected to stay behind, according to the sources, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal medical information.
Organizers say since July 1, 55 people linked to the Olympics have reported positive tests. This figure does not include athletes or others who may have arrived for training camps but are not yet under the “jurisdiction” of the organizing committee.
The Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay will house 11,000 Olympic athletes and thousands of support staff.
Tokyo reported 1,008 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the 29th straight day that cases were higher than seven days previously. It was also the fifth straight day with more than 1,000 cases reported.
The Olympics will open on Friday under a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures. The emergency order lasts until Aug. 22. The Olympics close on Aug. 8.
Fans – local and those from abroad – have been banned for all Olympic events in Tokyo and the three neighbouring prefectures. A few outlying venues may allow a smattering of local fans.
About 200 protesters gathered on Sunday outside Shinjuku station in central Tokyo, waving signs that read “No Olympics.” It was the latest in a series of small protests over the last few months targeting the Games.
“We are not only protesting the Olympics,” protester Karoi Todo told The Associated Press. “We are opposing the government overall _ this is ignoring human rights and our right to life. Infections are increasing. To do the Olympics is unforgivable.”
Keigo Oyamada, a Japanese composer whose music is part of Friday’s opening ceremony, has apologized for bullying a classmate when he was a child.
The reports of the abuse of a child with disabilities surfaced in Japanese media and sparked a backlash on social media. There has been a call for his resignation from the opening ceremony production.
Toronto police are investigating after a man was found with gunshot wounds near the lakefront Sunday.
Police said they were called to the Lake Shore Boulevard and Royal York Road area at around 4:27 p.m. for a report of a shooting.
Investigators said a man with “obvious signs of the trauma” was found lying on the ground in the vicinity.
Paramedics said the man has gunshot wounds and has been transported to a local hospital.
No other information has been released by the police.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the police directly. Tips can also be left anonymously with Crime Stoppers.
