Canadians are set to receive renewed federal help amid the coronavirus pandemic as Parliament passed legislation authorizing new financial aid, while Ontario announced more than $500 million in new funding to protect long-term care.
On early Wednesday morning, the federal government unanimously passed Bill C-4 — legislation authorizing new benefits for workers left jobless or underemployed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The vote, which was considered a confidence measure, earned the support of the more adversarial parties, the Bloc Quebecois and the Conservatives. It passed 306-0.
The bill is intended to replace the now-defunct $500-per-week Canada emergency response benefit (CERB), which came to an end last weekend after helping almost nine million Canadians weather the pandemic’s impact.
The bill introduces a series of new COVID-19 benefits for Canadians to ease their transition away from CERB.
Millions of CERB recipients will transition automatically to employment insurance (EI). Expanded eligibility rules will also mean more people can qualify and the changes also include three new replacement benefits.
WATCH | Ottawa to buy millions of rapid COVID-19 tests after approval:
Ottawa has signed an agreement to buy millions of rapid-test devices for COVID-19, but it hasn’t been approved by Health Canada. The technology promises to detect the virus in less than 15 minutes and many are pushing to speed up its approval. 1:56
September has been a record breaking month forOttawaas the city ends the month with 64 more confirmed cases of COVID, adding to the more than 1,300 reported over the course of the month.
On Wednesday, 43 out of 64 new cases were from people under the age of 40, most of them in their 20s and 30s.
With more than 20 deaths linked to COVID-19 so far this month, Ottawa’s medical officer of health said the city is experiencing a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
WATCH | Ontario scrambles to contain 2nd round of COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes:
There are at least 46 confirmed outbreaks at Ontario long-term care homes as the province scrambles to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 from getting out of control. But after almost 1,900 deaths in long-term care homes since the pandemic began, some say the province should have been able to prevent these new outbreaks. 2:11
Meanwhile in Ontario, health authorities say they are expecting new daily cases of COVID-19 to reach 1,000 in the first half of October, as the province confirmed another 625 new infections on Wednesday.
According to Adalsteinn Brown, the dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, the number of new cases reported daily are doubling every 10 to 12 days. That means the province could see a “remarkably high surge” in the next coming weeks.
He said the growth in infections was initially limited to the 20-39 age group, however now, cases are climbing in every age group.
“Although we see a large amount of infections among younger people right now, this is likely starting to spill over into older age groups, which is where we see the most tragic and most challenging consequences for health and for the health-care system,” said Brown.
At Alberta’s Foothills Medical Centre, some patients are being transferred to another hospital because of the COVID-19 outbreaks at the Calgary facility earlier this month.
So far, four patients have died and 60 positive cases have been identified in patients, staff and visitors. The outbreak has also caused dozens of surgeries to be postponed.
“It’s somewhat horrifying, to be honest, to see those kinds of numbers,” said Dr. Stephanie Smith, the director of infection prevention and control at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton.
“It severely impacts the hospital’s ability to provide care, and certainly we’re seeing that across the province in that there’s services that are being diverted to other hospitals. So it’s very concerning.”
Signs point to the Manitoba Public Insurance building, now a COVID-19 testing site, in Winnipeg on Tuesday. (Lyzaville Sale/CBC)
Residents in Manitoba are being warned about another outbreak at a personal care home.
The Calvary Place Personal Care Home in Winnipeg is moving to red, or critical, level on the province’s pandemic response system.
In a seven-week period in August and September, 61 health-care workers tested positive, making up the bulk of the roughly 100 such cases over the past six months, according to COVID-19 surveillance data from the province.
The recent uptick is adding strain to the health-care sector as employees are being required to work more overtime due to staffing shortages, said the Manitoba Nurses’ Union and the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
On Wednesday, 40 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Manitoba, bringing the total number of active cases to 599.
According to a provincial news release, more than three-quarters of the new cases — 31 — are in the Winnipeg health region.
New cases were also announced in each of the other four health regions in the province.
There are four in the Southern Health region, two in the Prairie Mountain Health region, two in the Interlake-Eastern health region and one in the Northern Health region.
What’s happening in the rest of Canada
As of 8:19 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Canada had 158,758 confirmed or presumptive coronavirus cases. Provinces and territories listed 134,971 of those as recovered or resolved. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 9,333.
The Abbott Laboratories-backed molecular devices can be administered by trained professionals at places like pharmacies, without the need for a laboratory to determine if someone is infected with the virus.
The point of care devices could give results in 15 minutes and could help improve tests for communities across Canada dealing with a surge in coronavirus cases.
To date, the vast majority of tests have been done at public health clinics, with samples then sent to laboratories for analysis — a process that can take days.
A health-care worker walks along the long lineup for a COVID-19 test at an Ottawa testing site on Sept. 15. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
Dr. Jennifer Russell said her colleagues from across the country have talked about “streamlining” testing requirements to avoid a logjam of tests for people who end up simply having a cold.
Several of the symptoms for COVID-19 overlap with those of the common cold, including a runny nose, sore throat and headache. Those are three of the 10 symptoms British Columbia removed last week.
She said the system can handle the current situation, but if there’s a spike in COVID-19 cases in New Brunswick, then the checklist may have to be scaled back.
Quebec is making sure people follow its newly strengthened public health rules, especially in the province’s red zones where COVID-19 cases are surging.
Starting Wednesday, police will be issuing $1,000 fines to those who gather in private residences or protests without wearing a mask.
“Police officers will start by trying to disperse the gatherings, but if people don’t co-operate, fines can be given,” Premier François Legault said.
Police will be authorized to demand proof of residency and if residents refuse entry, officers will be able to obtain warrants faster through a new, virtual system that was established in collaboration with the Crown, he said.
“We had to give the police the means to intervene,” said Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault.
Normally the process for obtaining a warrant can take a day or two, but that won’t work when police want to break up parties that very same evening, Legault said.
In addition to banning all gatherings, even outside in public parks, Quebec also has made masks mandatory for those who wish to march or protest.
Quebec reported 838 new cases of COVID-19 but no deaths Wednesday. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 74,288 confirmed cases and 5,834 people have died in the province.
WATCH | Critical contact tracing backlog as COVID-19 cases rise in Ontario:
Ontario has put a lot of effort into ramping up its COVID-19 testing, but experts say contact tracing is lagging woefully behind and it may be too late to fix the problem. 2:01
Officials say they have had difficulty tracing those who have been in contact with a positive case, hampering efforts to isolate potentially contagious individuals.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Christian Dubé said he was in the process of finalizing details about adopting the federal app, COVID Alert, which informs users when they have had prolonged contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole and BlocQuébécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet are back on Parliament Hill Wednesday after self-isolating for two weeks due to positive COVID-19 tests.
Blanchet said his personal experience should serve as a warning to everyone to take public health guidance seriously.
“Some people go through it much more painfully than I did. I was very, very, very lucky. Some people die of that thing,” he told a news conference.
“There is no absolute protection. There [are] only ways to reduce the probability of catching the thing and giving it to someone who might be more vulnerable to it.”
What’s happening around the world
According to Johns Hopkins University, the global total of confirmed coronavirus cases stands at more than 33.7 million. More than one million people have died, while over 23.4 million have recovered.
The United Nations chief says the COVID-19 pandemic has taken “an unprecedented toll,” especially on the economies of many developing countries, and the world has not responded with “the massive and urgent support those countries and communities need.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is seen on a screen during a video conference in Berlin on April 28. (Michael Kappeler/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)
Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that in the United States, Canada, Europe and most of the developed world, governments have adopted packages valued in double-digits of GDP to help tackle the coronavirus crisis and its impact.
“The problem is to mobilize the resources to allow the developing countries to be able to do the same,” he told a joint press conference with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who have been jointly spearheading high-level meetings to try to raise the resources.
Meanwhile the number of deaths and people being hospitalized for COVID-19 in Britain are rising again. On Wednesday, there were 7,108 new infections reported and 71 virus-related deaths, the same number of deaths confirmed the day before.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people on Wednesday to continue to social distance, wear masks, wash their hands and download the coronavirus app.
“I know that some people will think we should give up and let the virus take its course, despite the huge loss of life that would potentially entail,” Johnson said on Wednesday. “I profoundly disagree and I don’t think it’s what the British people want.”
WATCH | U.K.’s Boris Johnson vows to fight and defeat coronavirus:
Saying it’s vital to protect the U.K.’s health service, Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked Britons to follow the rules around COVID-19 and help defeat the coronavirus. 1:21
As the fight against the coronavirus continues, residents in Madridare being barred from leaving except on essential travel, Spain’s government said on Wednesday.
The capital city, with more than three million people, and nine surrounding municipalities with at least 100,000 inhabitants each, are to see borders closed to outsiders for non-essential visits.
People would be allowed to cross boundaries for work, school, doctors’ visits or shopping, but not for leisure.
Other measures include the closure of bars and restaurants at 11 p.m., from a previous curfew of 1 a.m., as well as shutting parks and playgrounds. Social gatherings will be limited to six people.
Madrid has 735 cases per 100,000 people, one of the highest of any region in Europe and double Spain’s national rate.
South Korea reported 113 new cases of COVID-19, its first daily increase over 100 in five days, as the country entered a holiday break that officials fear would possibly worsen transmissions.
The numbers released by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Wednesday brought the caseload to 23,812, including 413 deaths.
Eighty-one of the new cases came from the Seoul metropolitan area, where health workers have struggled to stem transmissions linked to various sources, including churches, medical facilities, restaurants, schools and workers.
Indonesia on Wednesday reported 4,284 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 287,008, data from the country’s COVID-19 task force showed.
Cleaners walk down a street as the city operates under lockdown in response to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Melbourne, Australia, on Sept. 3. (Erik Anderson/AAP Image/Reuters)
There were also 139 additional coronavirus-related deaths reported, taking the total number of fatalities to 10,740.
Russia has completed clinical trials of a second potential vaccine against COVID-19, developed by Siberia’s Vector Institute, the RIA news agency cited Russian consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor as saying on Wednesday.
The institute completed early-stage human trials, known as Phase II, earlier this month.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday pledged $100 million US to help developing countries access a COVID-19 vaccine as World Bank President David Malpass said “broad, rapid and affordable” access to vaccines “will be at the core of a resilient global economic recovery that lifts everyone.”
Merkel also called on “those who are still dithering” to commit to the global vaccine effort.
The Czech government will limit indoor gatherings to 10 people and outdoor ones to 20 as part of new measures taking effect for two weeks from Monday to combat a surge in coronavirus cases, Health Minister Roman Prymula said on Wednesday.
Sports matches will continue but without spectators, and theatres and cinemas can still operate, but concerts, musicals and operas will be banned, Prymula said.
TOKYO (AP) — Shohei Ohtani’s feat of becoming the first major leaguer with at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season was met with extra editions of newspapers for fans to read on their way to work on Friday morning in Japan.
Ohtani raced past the 50-50 milestone as he hit three homes and stole two bases in a game during the 20-4 rout of the Miami Marlins on Thursday, securing a playoff berth for the Dodgers.
The news topped morning headlines, and “Ohtani-san” was the No. 1 trending topic of social media platform X.
There was also praise from the Japanese government.
“We would like to express our heartfelt congratulations on his achievement of this giant record,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said as he responded to the first question at his regular news conference Friday. “We look forward to seeing more successes from Ohtani, who has already achieve numerous feats and pioneered new grounds.”
Ohtani, who debuted in Major League Baseball in 2018 with the Los Angeles Angels, has become Japan’s national icon and pride.
Yu Tachibana, a 44-year-old office worker, was a lucky one to get a copy of the special newspaper edition for her 18-year-old son who plays baseball. She says nobody had thought a Japanese player would so well a decade ago. “It is very encouraging,” she said, as she noted a saying where there is a will, there is a way.
A wave of congratulatory messages were posted on social media.
“Japan’s record-making machine has done it again,” U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said in his message on X. “Congratulations to Shohei Ohtani on an incredible baseball achievement. A true global ambassador of the game.”
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Already an NBA MVP and an Olympic gold medalist, All-Star center Joel Embiid now has until the end of the decade to try to win his first NBA championship with the Philadelphia 76ers.
With another maximum contract secured, Embiid wants to chase that title in Philly — and remain a Sixer for the rest of his career.
“Philadelphia is home,” Embiid wrote on Instagram.
A seven-time NBA All-Star, Embiid and the 76ers agreed to a $193 million extension with a player option for the 2028-29 season, a person familiar with the deal said. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the terms have not yet been announced.
The 30-year-old Embiid, who graduated from a Florida high school and played a season in college at Kansas, broke his own news early Friday morning when he posted a photo on Instagram of him signing a contract alongside team owner Josh Harris.
“I want to be here the rest of my career. I love this community and everything you’ve given me and my family,” Embiid wrote. “There is a lot more work to do. You guys deserve a championship and I think we’re just getting started.”
Embiid, who dropped a franchise-record 70 points last season against San Antonio, signed off with the familiar 76ers hashtag, “#trusttheprocess.”
Embiid — still in the second year of a $196 million extension he signed ahead of the 2021 season — became the third cornerstone player this offseason to sign a massive contract with the 76ers. The team hasn’t won an NBA title since 1983.
The 76ers enticed Paul George to leave the Los Angeles Clippers and sign a four-year, $212 million contract. The NBA’s Most Improved Player last season, Tyrese Maxey, was rewarded with a five-year, $204 million extension. The 76ers committed more than $400 million in salary to two players they believe position them as the top contender to dethrone the NBA champion Boston Celtics.
George and Maxey both congratulated Embiid on the extension on Instagram.
Throw in Embiid’s deal and the Sixers are counting on a Big Three that can contend for the life of their contracts. Embiid, though, has a history of injuries and has yet to lead to the franchise out of the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Embiid has never played more than 68 games in a season and averaged 34.7 points in just 39 games last season.
Originally selected by the 76ers with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, Embiid was named NBA MVP in the 2022-23 season and he won a gold medal with Team USA at this year’s Paris Olympics.
He has five All-NBA Team honors, seven consecutive All-Star selections from 2017-24, three All-Defensive Team nods, and twice has been the NBA scoring champion.
“Joel has cemented himself as one of the greatest Sixers of all time and is well on his way to being one of the best players to ever play the game. We’re ecstatic that this extension keeps him and his family in Philadelphia for years to come,” Harris said. “Joel is a great family man, leader, and person. He is an elite two-way player with a combination of size, strength, and athleticism that this league has rarely – if ever – seen. He is integral to this franchise’s quest for another NBA Championship, and we are honored that he continues to choose this organization as his NBA home.”
In 433 games (all starts) with the franchise, Embiid has averaged 27.9 points on 50.4% shooting, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.7 blocked shots across 31.9 minutes per contest. He ranks first in franchise history in scoring average (27.9 points per game), fifth in blocked shots (720), tied for sixth in triple-doubles (seven), and seventh in total points scored (12,071). Embiid also ranks third on the franchise list with eight 50-point games.
“I had no idea when I was drafted as a 20-year-old kid from Cameroon how lucky I was to be in Philadelphia,” Embiid said in a team statement. “Through all the ups and downs, this city and the fans have been everything, and I am so grateful for how they’ve embraced me.”
A youth soccer player, Embiid didn’t pick up a basketball until he was a teenager in Africa, when a friend informed him that very few 7-footers succeed in soccer.
A few months later, Embiid was lured to a basketball camp in the capital of Yaounde run by NBA veteran Luc Mbah a Moute, one of just two players from Cameroon to have played in the NBA. Mbah a Moute persuaded Embiid’s parents to let him move 6,000 miles to Florida, and helped enroll him at Montverde Academy, one of the best high school programs in the country. He played just 28 games in his lone season at Kansas before leaving for the NBA.
Embiid missed his first two full seasons with injuries before settling in as one of the top big men — and richest players — of his generation.
CALGARY – It will be the last show for longtime children’s TV star Ron (Buck Shot) Barge as a memorial is held Friday in Calgary.
For 30 years, Buck Shot and his sidekick Benny the Bear entertained Calgarians with songs, puppets, the birthday book and his nifty battered cowboy hat.
Barge died at home last month just 10 days short of his 88th birthday.
The memorial is set for noon at the Centre Street Church.
“It’s like the last show. That’s why we did it at noon,” said his son Ken.
“It’s at noon because that’s when ‘The Buck Shot Show’ would start … 12 o’clock every day,” added his daughter Brenda.
“We’re looking forward to it. It’s going to be nice to have the memorial because Dad would love it.”
“Buck Shot” was one of the longest-running children’s shows in Canada, surpassing “Mr. Dressup,” which ran for 29 years, and “The Friendly Giant,” which aired for 27.
Barge was asked to develop the show when he was a cameraman and floor director at CFCN in Calgary. He had a knack for interviewing kids in the audience and getting actual responses.
The show ran from 1967 to 1997, but Barge continued in his role making special appearances at events.
“It’s just for people who want to celebrate him. We’ve had so many beautiful things said online,” Brenda Barge said.
“It’s been such a reawakening of who my dad was because it’s been a lot of years since he was Buck Shot.”
A musician most of his life, Barge played in bands from the time he was 16. He played piano and sang with the Stardells for more than 20 years in Calgary.
His family said he loved the show and the character he created. Since the show was done live, it led to a number of pranks being played by people working on it.
“The birthday book was the primary target and the hired hands would put either a bad joke or a bad picture or something that was not appropriate for children’s television and my dad would have to keep a straight face while he was holding that stupid book,” said Ken.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2024.
