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Ontario education minister tests negative for COVID-19 as premier

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Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce has tested negative for COVID-19 after he recently came into contact with someone with a confirmed case. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott are getting tested “out of an abundance of caution,” the premier’s spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The province abruptly announced that Ford and Elliott would not participate in Wednesday’s daily news conference, just minutes before it was set to begin.

“Premier Ford and Minister Elliott will be getting tested today. Both will continue to monitor for symptoms and take appropriate action as necessary,” spokesperson Ivana Yelich said in a statement.

Yelich says the government will notify the public of the test results.

Ford appears to be the first premier to publicly announce his testing for COVID-19.

At the news conference on Wednesday, Minister of Colleges and Universities Ross Romano said he had learned the news “a matter of minutes” before coming to the podium.

“I know our premier is acting out of an extreme abundance of caution,” Romano told reporters.

In a statement sent out just before 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Lecce said he’s been isolating at home since learning of the possible exposure, adding he was “informed minutes ago” about the negative results.

“The premier and Minister Elliott have been extremely clear: If you feel you need a test, you should get tested. We all have a role to play in combating this virus,” the statement read.

 

 

Neither the premier’s office nor a spokesperson for Lecce would say how he came into contact with a positive case, or why his possible exposure wasn’t made public sooner.

The premier’s office would also not confirm whether Ford had been in self-isolation while awaiting Lecce’s test results.

The news comes one day after Ford’s nephew, Toronto city councillor Michael Ford, tested positive for the virus.

According to the premier’s office, Doug Ford had not been in contact with his nephew in the past two weeks.

Ontario reported 251 additional COVID-19 cases, and testing levels jumped back above the province’s target on Wednesday.

It’s the second straight day with a growth rate in new daily cases of about 0.8 per cent, a figure not seen in Ontario since late March.

There have now been 31,341 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province since the outbreak began in late January. For the first time, a full 81 per cent of those are being classified as resolved. Some 551 cases were marked resolved yesterday.

Elliott said in a tweet that 59 of today’s new cases are related to an outbreak in southwestern Ontario, where “public health officials are hard at work to contain an outbreak.” The “vast majority” of the others are in the Greater Toronto Area, she added.

There are now 3,486 active COVID-19 cases across the province, more than 300 fewer than yesterday. In late May, there were more than 4,000 active cases.

Ontario’s network of community, commercial and hospital labs processed 19,941 tests on Tuesday, more than the benchmark of 16,000 per day set in April. The Ministry of Health says the system has capacity for nearly 25,000 on any given day.

The backlog of test samples waiting to be processed stands at 13,897, meaning more than 20,000 were added to the queue yesterday.

Meanwhile, the number of patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario hospitals continues to decline and now stands at 580, the fewest since April 5.

Those being treated in intensive care units rose slightly to 118, up from 116, and those requiring a ventilator dropped by two, down to 86.

Ontario’s official COVID-19 death toll grew by 11 and stands at 2,475. A CBC News count based on data from regional public health units puts the real current toll at 2,523. About 78 per cent of all deaths in the province were residents of long-term care homes.

Public health officials have tracked outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in a total of 312 long-term care facilities, and 75 remain active.

In-person post-secondary training to resume for some students

Starting July 2, some in-person training and classes will resume for post-secondary students in Ontario who may have missed out on graduating due to the pandemic — students Romano described Wednesday as “academically-stranded” while they wait to complete a practicum or lab work.

 

In-person education and training is set to restart as early as July 2 for “academically stranded” students — those who could not graduate because they weren’t able to complete in-person education or training, said Minister of Colleges and Universities Ross Romano. 1:14

“These students in areas such as nursing, PSWs [personal support workers], engineering students and many, many different trades programs — these individuals could be working today helping in Ontario’s economic recovery but for the fact that they must complete a mere matter of hours, in some cases, of in-person learning,” Romano said.

Of the province’s 600,000 post-secondary students, approximately 10,000 are eligible to participate in the program.

This would be, at most, an eight-week session ending around the beginning of September, Romano explained.

In the four weeks leading up to the start of the reopening, colleges and universities will be preparing classrooms using new health and safety guidelines set out for them by the government.

Source: – CBC.ca

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Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

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BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

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VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.

The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.

The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.

The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.

The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.

MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.

In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.

“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.

“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.

“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.

The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.

“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”

The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.

A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

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The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.

Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.

Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.

Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.

“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.

“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”

Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.

“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.

Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.

“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”

But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.

Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.

“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.

Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.

The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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