More than 2,000 people returning to Canada since the federal government brought in mandatory hotel quarantines have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than a quarter of them were infected with a variant of concern.
Data supplied to The Canadian Press by the Public Health Agency of Canada show that between Feb. 22 and April 22, 557 international air travellers tested positive for a variant of concern. Most of them, 518 cases, are the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom, which is the dominant variant in Canada.
Another 27 passengers tested positive for the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa, and 12 tested positive for the P.1 variant identified in Brazil.
The viruses mutations become “variants of concern” when they are confirmed to spread more easily, cause more severe illness or be resistant to known treatments or vaccines.
Data is not available to show if those passengers are believed to have infected anyone after arriving, but at some point, all of those variants arrived in Canada via travellers, and then spread. There are now almost 95,000 confirmed cases of B.1.1.7, as well 578 cases of B.1.351 and more than 2,000 of P.1.
Those numbers have opposition parties and provincial governments begging Ottawa to take even more steps to keep travellers from bringing COVID-19 into Canada with them.
“I’m pleading with the federal government to stop all non-essential travel to Canada before new variants overwhelm our ICUs completely,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote on Twitter April 24.
Last week, Canada did bar flights from India and Pakistan for a month after too many planes landed carrying infected people. But they are far from the only source.
Between April 7 and April 24, the public health agency identified 165 flights from 19 countries, with at least one passenger who later tested positive for COVID-19.
Forty-three of the flights came from India, 29 from the United States, 30 from Europe and 17 from the United Arab Emirates. Only one flight originated in Pakistan.
Epidemiologists agree the border measures should be strengthened, but say keeping COVID-19 from spreading requires more than just border closures.
“I think the border control restrictions and monitoring is only the beginning, it’s only one cure,” said University of Saskatchewan epidemiology professor Nazeem Muhajarine.
“It has to be complemented with a whole suite of measures. That alone is not going to actually amount to anything, really.”
He said rapid testing and good contact tracing is a must, as is swift action to contain outbreaks when they are identified.
Ottawa has required a two-week quarantine for international arrivals since March 2020, but only since Feb. 22, have air passengers had to spend three days of that in a quarantine hotel. As the variants arose, Canada also began requiring negative COVID-19 tests before boarding a plane, and from air and land border travellers upon arrival.
Another test is now required at day eight. It was day 10 until April 23.
Health Canada has not been able to provide data for how many passengers tested positive after leaving hotel quarantine. It also can’t provide test results for any of the 297 people who paid a $3,000 fine for failing to stay in the quarantine hotel.
Susanne Gulliver, an epidemiologist at NewLab Clinical Research in St. John’s, N.L., said part of the issue is that for all land travellers, and for most of the quarantine period for air passengers, they’re on their own.
Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea, all with much lower COVID-19 rates than Canada, require travellers to quarantine for two full weeks after arriving.
Gulliver said three days with supervised quarantine is not enough.
“It should be supervised for the entirety, for both their protection and the protection of the public,” she said, noting if someone gets sick in quarantine they can be monitored to ensure they get medical help if they need it.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defends the government’s policies as among the strongest in the world, and says most of the travellers are Canadians who cannot be refused entry.
He also said less than two per cent of all Canada’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 are from travellers, or someone who came into contact with a traveller.
Muhajarine said however that a single case from a traveller, can infect several people in Canada which starts a cascade of community spread that aren’t labelled as travel cases once they’re passed on more than once.
Muhajarine and Gulliver both point to the Atlantic bubble as a place where restricting entry, even to Canadians from other provinces, worked well because they were accompanied by quick government action to lock things down if an outbreak occurred.
Gulliver noted quick action shut down an outbreak of the B.1.1.7 variant in Newfoundland in February. Nova Scotia implemented a provincewide lockdown Wednesday the day after a record 96 cases were reported in the province.
Australia is similar. Perth and a neighbouring region brought down the hammer for three days recently after just two cases were reported. Similar lockdowns have happened many times in Australia, which has confirmed fewer than 30,000 cases of COVID-19 overall, a rate of 117 for every 100,000 people.
Canada, conversely, has 1.2 million cases, a rate of 3,200 for every 100,000 people.
The Ontario government has announced they will be mandating three paid sick days and has offered to boost the federal sick-leave program to $1,000 per week to those eligible.
Provincial Labour Minister Monte McNaughton made the announcement Wednesday and said the legislation, if passed, would require employers to pay employees up to $200 per day for three days. The program, which is available to full and part-time employees, will be retroactive to April 19 and be effective until Sept. 25.
The province is partnering with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to deliver the program and reimburse employers.
The program is expected to cost the province between $750 million and $1.5 billion.
Ontario has also offered to boost the federal Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB) from $500 to $1,000. In a statement, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said they are continuing to discuss the province’s top-up of the program with the federal government.
“We believe that this is the simplest and fastest way to increase program uptake and make this program more effective for those people who need this program most,” read the statement.
The federal government has not committed to this agreement at this point and had previously said Ottawa will help when Ontario is ready to mandate a sick-leave program for provincially regulated businesses.
In a statement, press secretary for the office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Katherine Cuplinskas reiterated that sentiment saying “we will be there to help Ontario with its program.” She added that they are “pleased” that Ontario is ready to mandate sick leave in provincially-regulated businesses, “as we have done for federally-regulated businesses since 2019.”
“The federal wage subsidy was designed – and is already set up – to provide employers with financial support to pay the wages of workers who are on sick leave,” she said. “Our priority is protecting lives and ensuring no one needs to put themselves or others at risk if they feel sick. We will continue to be there for Canadians – as we have been since the start of the pandemic.”
Critics were quick to note, however, that three paid sick days were far less than the 10 to 14 days health professionals recommend for a period of self-isolation due to COVID-19.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the government’s policy “simply will not cut it.”
“(Workers) will be left making pretty much the same kind of calculation that they’re being forced to make now, which is, ‘I’ve got the sniffles, I’m not feeling all that great … but I have to go to work because I don’t have financial security to stay home’,” she said.
Horwath said her party needed to see the government’s legislation before deciding whether to support it, but added that it appeared inferior to an NDP private members’ bill to introduce 10 paid sick days.
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said he was shocked that after months of pressure, the three-day policy was all that the Ford government introduced.
He called on the the premier — who is in self-isolation after being exposed to a staff member with COVID-19 — to change the legislation to provide at least 10 paid sick days.
“I was hopeful that after the premier took taxpayer-funded paid sick days to isolate after a workplace exposure, he would have had a change of heart,” he said. “But Ford’s plan falls well short of providing the protection workers need.”
The CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario said the government’s sick-leave program will not be enough to prevent further illness and outbreaks and will further extend the third wave of the pandemic.
Doris Grinspun said employees will use the three days but could return to work sick.
“Three days is insufficient to stop it,” she said. “Therefore, we will continue with this for a couple of months at least.”
The president of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce called the new program a “step in the right direction” but recommended enhancements.
“Any paid sick-day program must be fully and immediately accessible to workers who need it with a quick and seamless reimbursement for employers,” Rocco Rossi said in a statement. “When workers protect themselves, they protect their colleagues, their employers, and their communities.”
Dr. Michael Warner at Michael Garron Hospital, posted a video to Twitter breaking down the numbers and highlighting how paid sick days would directly impact the family of one of his patients.
The recent COVID-19 death of a 13-year-old Brampton, Ont., girl whose father is an essential worker, renewed calls for an Ontario program.
Horwath said it’s clear the federal government had “rebuffed” the province’s request.
“That’s not going to stop the spread of COVID-19 in workplaces and it’s not going to stop the deaths,” she said.
Meantime, the Ford government announced Wednesday that hospitals in Ontario will now be able to transfer patients waiting for a long-term care bed to any nursing home without their consent in an effort to free up space.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says the government has issued a new emergency order to allow for such transfers.
With files from Lucas Casaletto
A Toronto police program that pairs officers with mental health nurses is expanding.
At a time some are questioning whether police should be the ones responding to mental health calls, changes are in the works for the mobile crisis intervention unit.
“The expansion is for the community and for the mental health community,” said Deputy Chief Peter Yuen, of the Toronto Police Service.
Last year, the mobile crisis intervention teams (MCIT) responded to 7,500 of the about 40,000 annual person-in-crisis calls. This year, the partnership between police and local hospitals will be available for more hours every day.
“We’re expanding from 10 hours on the road a day to 14 and a half hours,” said Leah Dunbar, project manager of the mobile crisis intervention team at Michael Garron Hospital.
There will also be 12 teams on the roads for seven days a week, plus a downtown team four times a week.
“We’re able to see more people and provide them with those supports,” said Dunbar.
With the expansion, the teams are expected to handle more than 11,000 calls.
The teams are also planning a new look, including uniforms and vehicles that look less like traditional police cars. Yuen says the changes are meant to take the stigma away from community interactions with crisis teams.
“These are things that were asked of us from the community,” he said.
The expansion comes as calls to defund police have intensified.
Police in the GTA have been scrutinized for their handling of mental health calls, which in some cases have ended with officers killing people in crisis.
“We also understand mental health response shouldn’t solely be a police-led type of incident,” said Yuen. “We’re the only service available 24/7, certainly we support non-police responses and we will do everything we can to collaborate with other agencies.”
Yuen says the force is working with communities, adding that the service shifted existing funding into this expansion. MCIT training has also doubled to 80 hours, with an emphasis on de-escalating tense situations.
“We’re able to include things such as autism spectrum disorder, major mental health disorders, trauma-informed care, patient advocacy,” said Dunbar. “We’ve really been able to enhance the course.”
“We can’t ever have enough communication skills,” said Yuen. “And also understanding intersectionality of racialized communities, anti-black racism, anti-indigenous racism, implicit bias — these are all the new things we have included in training.”
Yuen also said that the MCIT will help connect people to community-based services and programs, instead of diverting them to hospitals, which are currently overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
The police service is also launching a downtown 9-1-1 pilot project, hoping to centralize access to community agencies. Yuen is optimistic that at times, officers won’t be required at calls.
“It will be a collaborative effort between 9-1-1 call takers and crisis workers to determine how these calls should be triaged and who should be attending,” explains Yuen.
More details on the 9-1-1 pilot are expected to be released in May.
The Toronto Maple Leafs booked their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fifth straight year following a 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday.
Heading into the game, Toronto needed a regulation win to clinch a playoff spot after the Ottawa Senators earned a regulation victory over the Vancouver Canucks earlier in the day.
Goals from William Nylander, Auston Matthews, Jake Muzzin and Adam Brooks lifted Toronto over Montreal, who got a lone tally from Nick Suzuki. Matthews’ goal gave him 35 on the season, leaving him atop all NHL goal-scorers in 2020-21.
Leafs winger Joe Thornton, who set the record as the oldest player in franchise history to score when he found the back of the net Saturday, helped set up Muzzin’s goal to become just the seventh player in league history to register 1,100 career assists.
Thornton joined Wayne Gretzky (1,963), Ron Francis (1,249), Mark Messier (1,193), Ray Bourque (1,169), Jaromir Jagr (1,155) and Paul Coffey (1,135) as the only players in NHL history to crack 1,100 assists.
With the win, the Maple Leafs remain atop the North Division with 67 points. They will now try to wrap up their first division title in 21 years.
Toronto have earned a post-season berth in each year since 2016-17, Matthews’ debut season, but have yet to make it out of the first round.
The Leafs and fourth-place Canadiens – set to go head-to-head three more times before the end of the regular season – look poised to meet in the playoffs for the first time since 1979.
Toronto will now turn its immediate attention towards a two-game series at home beginning Thursday against the Vancouver Canucks, while Montreal, which remains six points up on the Calgary Flames for the North’s final post-season berth, hosts the Winnipeg Jets on Friday before the Ottawa Senators come to town Saturday.
Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report
Netflix has chosen Toronto as the spot for its previously announced Canadian corporate office.
A publicist for the California-based streaming giant told The Canadian Press Tuesday the company will post a content executive job for the new office in June.
Netflix said in February it planned to open an office in this country but was still figuring out the location.
It had been eyeing Toronto and Vancouver, since the streamer shoots several productions in both markets.
Toronto is also where Netflix set up a production hub two years ago when it leased studio spaces along the city’s waterfront.
A representative from the company said Toronto made sense for a variety of reasons, including a plethora of talent, partners and international festivals in the city.
The representative said Netflix hasn’t chosen an exact location and hopes to set up an interim office this summer before establishing a permanent shop, in accordance with COVID-19 health and safety guidelines.
Netflix adds it expects 10 to 15 employees will be based in Toronto. The first hiring priority is the content executive, who will work directly with creators on ideas and pitches for films and series.
Job postings for other Toronto positions will be announced on the careers section of its website.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said Netflix spends over $200 million a year shooting shows in the city.
“In very difficult times, this is the kind of news that gives people in this city, and gives the city as a whole, hope,” Tory told reporters Tuesday.
Toronto’s film and television production industry “is second to none anywhere in the world,” Tory said, and he believes the new Netflix location will “become the second-biggest office next to the head office.”
“They’re on notice that we’re going to grow this office and it’s going to be a powerhouse office before too long and really cement our position yet again with this company, and others who will follow, as the place in Canada to make film and television productions,” Tory said.
Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos said in an interview in February the move was “a big first step” toward content creation in Canada.
He said adding an office in Canada would allow Netflix executives to be closer to Canadian creators, so they could build relationships and field pitches.
“As we grow our business and presence all across Canada, we’re excited that Toronto will be our first local office,” Sarandos added Tuesday in a statement.
“We’re looking forward to opening our doors and building on the great work we’ve started with our creative partners to bring more Canadian artists and stories to the world.”
Netflix has 21 offices around the world, in cities including Amsterdam and Rome.
The company recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary in Canada and has seven million Canadian subscribers.
Sarandos said since 2017, Netflix has spent $2.5 billion on production in Canada, on titles including the Toronto-shot “The Umbrella Academy” and the Vancouver-filmed series “Firefly Lane,” which is currently their No. 1 show in the world.
Other Netflix programming shot in Canada includes “Virgin River” in British Columbia, “The Adam Project” in Vancouver and “Locke & Key” in Toronto.
They were the team that drafted her and now, the team that is giving her the first taste of being traded.
Canada’s Kia Nurse had her name called by the New York Liberty in the 2018 WNBA Draft, beginning her journey in the league. Fast forward two years later and she is now a member of the Phoenix Mercury.
“I didn’t expect it to come but I had a feeling something was happening,” Nurse told CityNews after the trade in February.
The Liberty dealt her in a three-team trade that saw her end up in Phoenix with WNBA vets Skylar Diggins-Smith and Diana Taurasi.
“There is so much for me as a youngin’ that I can learn from them,” said Nurse.
This week, the WNBA opened training camp where Nurse was able to get advice from Taurasi and Diggins-Smith about developing her game.
“I asked them about what they have found success in and how they have got themselves out of shooting slumps every once in a while and they have been really great in between plays to help me with little things,” Nurse said from camp.
Nurse is just one of a handful of Canadians playing in the WNBA the season with two of her Team Canada teammates Bridget Carlton and Natalie Achonwa, who play for the Minnesota Lynx.
Nurse believes that with the leadership and talent on the Mercury, no team will be able to stand in their way of the championship this year. “I think we have a top team for sure.”
Last year, the 12 teams played a condensed season in a bubble like the NBA scenario in Florida because of the pandemic. This year will also be unique as some players, including Kia, will be leaving their teams to compete in the Olympics.
“This is going to be another one of those unprecedented times. It will be different then what we saw in the bubble just because we are in market and we are traveling but you have to add in the fact that there are the Olympics and that some of us that will be leaving in the middle of the season to just leave and go play for another team and just come back,” said Nurse.
The WNBA Season will tip-off in its 25th year on May 14.
MONTREAL – A Quebecer has died due to a blood clot after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Quebec’s public health director, Dr. Horacio Arruda, made the announcement during the government’s Tuesday health update.
The woman who died was 54 years old.
Reports indicated she was from the Monteregie-South Shore region of Montreal, but Arruda wouldn’t confirm those details citing privacy reasons.
This is the first Canadian to die after this shot.
Health officials across Canada have maintained that these cases are incredibly rare and the benefits of getting the vaccine far outweigh the risks.
“What I regret is the story of this woman, I think if we could have prevented [this] if we knew that she was going to do it, we wouldn’t have given her the vaccine. But it’s impossible,” said Arruda.
“But I don’t regret [it] because we are sure we are preventing more deaths and complications of the disease, even with that vaccine.”
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube says the province is currently investigating four cases of serious complications out of some 400,000 people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“This is very sad but I don’t think it changes the program at all,” said Dube.
“In fact, we were expecting to have these complications with a certain number–it is within the number of persons that could be affected, we are in that number. That’s very unfortunate and we are sad about it, but that’s the price of vaccination.”
Dube says the government has been very clear about the risks associated with the COVID-19 vaccines, which was reiterated when the province opened up eligibility for the AstraZeneca vaccine to include those 55 years old and younger.
“I think that’s the price to pay to be vaccinated and to be going back to a normal life at one point in time,” he said.
Currently, the province is offering the vaccine to Quebecers between the ages of 45 and 79, and Arruda says there are no plans to change that strategy.
Around 80 Canada Post employees and contractors are self-isolating after a COVID-19 outbreak was declared at the Gateway West facility in Mississauga.
Peel Public Health has ordered the Shift 3 employees (the afternoon shift) within the Toronto Exchange Office at 4567 Dixie Road to leave the workplace and self-isolate for 10 days.
In the last seven days, Canada Post says 12 employees who work in the location have tested positive for COVID-19.
The crown corporation says they continue to provide on-site rapid COVID-19 testing and paid leave provisions are in place for any employees who have to self-isolate.
The Toronto Exchange Office is where inbound international mail items arrive are reviewed and cleared by the Canadian Border Service Agency and customers can expect some delays as contingency plans are implemented.
The Gateway location was previously hit by a massive COVID-19 outbreak back in January in which over 200 employees tested positive.
Peel Public Health has already ordered the partial closure of seven businesses since the implementation of their Section 22 order, including two Amazon fulfillment centres and a Brampton Canadian Tire distribution centre.
Toronto police say they are investigating after a man in his 40s was stabbed in Scarborough Monday evening.
Police said they were called at around 7:15 p.m. to the Progress Avenue and Borough Drive area for a report of a fight in a mall parking lot.
Investigators said the victim left the scene before police arrived, but was later found in a car on the side of Highway 401 after he called 911 to ask for help.
It is not known if the victim was the driver, police said.
He was transported to the hospital in serious, but non-life-threatening condition.
Police said they are searching for a suspect described as male and possibly in his late teens. He was seen wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and was holding a large kitchen knife.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the police directly. Tips can also be left anonymously with Crime Stoppers.
OTTAWA — With the help of the NDP, Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal government has survived the last of three confidence votes on its massive budget.
The House of Commons approved Monday the government’s general budgetary policy by a vote of 178-157.
Liberals were joined by New Democrat MPs in voting for the budget, in accordance with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s vow not to trigger an election in the midst of a deadly third wave of COVID-19.
Conservative, Bloc Quebecois and Green MPs voted against the budget.
Votes on the budget are considered confidence matters; had all opposition parties voted against it, the government would have fallen, plunging the country into an election.
The government survived two other confidence votes on the budget last week, on Conservative and Bloc Quebecois amendments to the budget motion.
The budget, introduced last week, commits just over $100 billion in new spending to stimulate the economic recovery, on top of an unprecedented, pandemic-induced deficit of $354 billion in the 2020-21 fiscal year.
The government must eventually introduce a budget implementation bill, which will also be a matter of confidence.
Prime Minister Trudeau last week insisted the big-spending budget is not a launching pad for an election. He would not rule out an election this year, noting that he leads a minority government and saying it will be “up to Parliament to decide when the election is.”
While that sounded like Trudeau doesn’t intend to pull the plug himself on his government, it didn’t preclude the possibility that the Liberals could try to orchestrate their defeat at the hands of opposition parties. Nor did it preclude the possibility that Trudeau could at some point claim that a dysfunctional minority Parliament requires him to seek a majority mandate.
Some Liberal insiders believe Trudeau may pull the plug this summer, provided that the pandemic is relatively under control and vaccines are rolling out smoothly.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2021.
