In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Mar. 29 …
What we are watching in Canada …
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OTTAWA – Canada is scheduled to receive a flood of new COVID-19 vaccine doses this week.
The Public Health Agency of Canada says pharmaceutical companies are expected to deliver around 3.3 million shots over the coming days.
That would mark the single-largest week of vaccine doses into Canada since the start of the pandemic.
Pfizer and BioNTech are scheduled to ship nearly 1.2 million doses this week, as the two companies continue pumping out shots at a rapid pace.
Another 1.5 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are set to arrive by truck from the United States on Tuesday.
And the government is expects Moderna to make good on its promised delivery of 600,000 shots this coming Thursday, which is about a week later than expected.
Moderna was supposed to have shipped around 846,000 shots to Canada last week, but only a fraction actually arrived due to what the company and government have described as a backlog in its quality-assurance testing.
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REGINA – There is some new research on what Canadians think life will be like when the pandemic is over.
A study suggests most people believe COVID-19 will have negative consequences on mental health, travel and the economy.
Others feel the pandemic will bolster online shopping and make public mask-wearing more common.
The findings are from a phone survey by the Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research at the University of Saskatchewan.
Director Jason Disano says people are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel because of vaccines.
He says some of the data he found most interesting were about children’s education.
Despite 63 per cent of people feeling like the pandemic will have a positive effect on the delivery of online education, 54 per cent thought it would be bad for children’s learning.
Overall, the survey suggests there is a lot of uncertainty about what communities will look like once they are no longer threatened by the novel coronavirus.
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VANCOUVER – Police are expected to release more details today in their investigation of a stabbing rampage that left a young woman dead and injured six others in and around a library on Saturday in North Vancouver, B.C.
A 28-year-old man was charged Sunday with second-degree murder.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said Yannick Bandaogo is in police custody after undergoing surgery for self-inflicted wounds.
Police have not named the woman who died, but said she was in her 20s. Six others were injured in the attack at the Lynn Valley Public Library.
Police said their injuries vary in severity and all six are expected to survive.
In a written statement, Sgt. Frank Jang said police planned to hold a news conference today. IHIT investigators spent Sunday combing the area for evidence and interviewing witnesses, he said.
Supt. Ghalib Bhayani of the North Vancouver RCMP said the department shares “the community’s grief and outrage.”
The pile of flowers and wreaths left just outside the caution tape cordoning off the crime scene grew throughout the weekend as residents stopped by.
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What we are watching in the U.S. …
MINNEAPOLIS — A former Minneapolis police officer goes on trial Monday in George Floyd’s death, and jurors may not wait long to see parts of the bystander video that caught Derek Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck.
Prosecutors have not said when they will play the video, but legal experts say they expect it to be early as part of an effort to remind jurors of what is at the heart of their case.
The widely seen video sparked waves of outrage and activism across the U.S. and beyond.
And while it will have an impact, the key questions at trial are likely to be whether Chauvin caused Floyd’s death and whether his actions were reasonable.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden will lay out the first part of his multitrillion-dollar economic recovery package this week focusing on rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
A separate plan in April will address child and health care.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed on Sunday the administration’s plans to split the package into two legislative proposals, though she says the White House will “work with the Senate and House to see how it should move forward.”
Biden will release details in a speech Wednesday in Pittsburgh about his proposal for federal investments in physical infrastructure.
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What we are watching in the rest of the world …
SUEZ, Egypt — Engineers have partially refloated the container ship that is wedged across the Suez Canal.
But the massive ship is still blocking traffic and there are no details about when it might be fully freed.
The canal services firm says the ship was partially refloated after tugboats pushed and pulled while the full moon’s tides raised the water level.
Dredgers are also removing mud and sand around the ship. Satellite images show the vessel’s bulbous bow still wedged in the canal’s eastern bank.
The skyscraper-sized Ever Given became stuck in the canal last Tuesday and has held up $9 billion in global trade each day.
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BEIJING — A joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak of the coronavirus is “extremely unlikely.”
A draft copy was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
The findings were largely as expected, and left many questions unanswered.
The team proposed further research in every area except the lab leak hypothesis.
The report’s release has been repeatedly delayed, raising questions about whether the Chinese side was trying to skew the conclusions.
The AP received what appeared to be a near-final version from a Geneva-based diplomat from a WHO-member country.
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ICYMI …
HALIFAX – Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan paid tribute Sunday to Canada’s only all-Black unit to serve during the First World War, saying the 600 members of No. 2 Construction Battalion and their descendants are owed an apology for the racism they faced despite their willingness to serve.
Sajjan told a virtual event plans are in the works for a formal apology from Ottawa, which will highlight the fact that hundreds of Black men in Canada were turned away when they volunteered to fight overseas in 1914.
“They stepped forward and volunteered for our country, only to be denied because of the colour of their skin — denied to fight in a so-called ‘white-man’s war,'” Sajjan said in a brief speech from British Columbia.
After two years of protests, the Canadian military was granted approval in 1916 to establish a segregated, non-combat battalion that would be tasked with building roads, railways and forestry operations as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Established July 5, 1916, in Pictou, N.S., the battalion was the last segregated unit in the Canadian military.
Only a few of its members would see combat, mainly because the battalion was repeatedly told its help wasn’t wanted on the front lines.
Members of the unit were shipped home in 1918 and the battalion was disbanded in 1920.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Mar. 29, 2021
NEW YORK – Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov dropped their opening singles matches at the U.S. Open on Tuesday.
And on the women’s side, Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Quebec, didn’t do much better despite being the 23rd seed in the Grand Slam tourney.
But 22-year-old Gabriel Diallo of Montreal opened the evening session in New York City with a brilliant four-set upset over Jaume Munar of Spain in a match that took three hours, 23 minutes to play.
Diallo defeated Munar 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, recording 20 aces along the way. Diallo had 52 unforced errors compared to Munar’s 15, but the Canadian dominated in winners 39-15.
Czechia’s Jakub Mensik posted a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win over the 19th-seeded Auger-Aliassime in first-round play while Shapovalov dropped a 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 decision to Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands.
Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo was set to meet Spain’s Jaume Munar later Tuesday. Mensik scored his sixth break in the final game of the match, with Auger-Aliassime committing his 36th unforced error on match point.
Auger-Aliassime, from Montreal, has had a string of tough results since finishing fourth in men’s singles and teaming with Gabriela Dabrowski to win mixed-doubles bronze at the Paris Olympics.
He was drummed out in the first round of his hometown tournament at the men’s National Bank Open.
Auger-Aliassime also fell in the third round of the Cincinnati Open when his British opponent, Jack Draper, was given the call on match point despite the ball seeming to hit the ground on his side of the court before going over the net.
Shapovalov, a former top-10 player from Richmond Hill, Ont., is currently ranked No. 105 in the world.
Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. Open finalist, jumped out to an early lead against Russia’s Anastasia Potapova, easily winning the first set 6-2. But the Russian rallied to win the second set 6-4 and won the deciding set 7-5.
Both players had six double faults, while Fernandez had 19 of the 47 unforced errors in the two-hour, 26-minute match.
In other women’s action, 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., was to face fifth-seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy in the evening draw.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2024.
EDMONTON – The Insurance Bureau of Canada says the wildfire that tore through Jasper is the second-most expensive one in Alberta’s history for insured losses.
It says initial estimates suggest more than $880 million in insured damage was caused by the fire.
The 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta., resulted in inflation-adjusted insured losses of $4.4 billion and was the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history.
About 25,000 people were forced to flee Jasper National Park and the town on July 22.
The town’s 5,000 residents were allowed back more than three weeks later, though the area is still closed to visitors.
More than 350 buildings in Jasper were destroyed, representing a third of its structures.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2024.
