Manitoba’s top doctor is again warning people to stick with their households and keep track of their close contacts as the province struggles with growing COVID-19 case numbers and more hospitalizations.
“We should only be going out for essential purposes,” Dr. Brent Roussin said Monday as the province reported 10 more deaths and 392 new cases of COVID-19. “That’s our only way forward … we have to reduce our overall amount of contacts.”
The province’s health system is struggling as hospitalizations increase and more COVID-19 patients fill intensive care beds.
“In the last three days we’ve announced more than 1,000 cases,” Roussin said at his briefing. “We can’t sustain this number of cases in our health-care system.”
The government last week closed restaurants, bars, gyms, non-essential retail stores and other facilities in an attempt to reduce the increasing caseload. But even with public health orders and enforcement, Roussin said the province needs “buy-in” from residents to get case numbers moving in the right direction.
What’s happening across Canada
Canada’s COVID-19 case count — as of 11:15 a.m. ET on Tuesday — stood at 304,427, with 50,613 of those considered active cases. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 11,063.
Ontario reported 1,249 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total number of deaths in the province ot 3,383. There were 569 new cases in Toronto, 256 in Peel Region and 94 in York Region, according to Health Minister Christine Elliott.
The province’s COVID-19 website on Tuesday put the number of hospitalizations at 529, with 127 people in intensive care.
In Quebec, the number of daily COVID-19 cases dropped below 1,000 as health officials reported 982 new cases. The province reported 24 deaths, including five reported to have occurred in the last 24 hours.
“We know why we had this horror back in the spring. It’s because of inadequate staffing, poor infrastructure… and what’s changed in the interim?” <a href=”https://twitter.com/picardonhealth?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@picardonhealth</a> on the lessons missed from the first wave of COVID-19: <a href=”https://t.co/CYSlwESLo8″>https://t.co/CYSlwESLo8</a> <a href=”https://t.co/XyStBvZYig”>pic.twitter.com/XyStBvZYig</a>
In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick reported four new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
In Prince Edward Island, which has just three active cases, officials said Tuesday that the province will be introducing a mask mandate for indoor public spaces.
Across the North, which has so far avoided the worst of the global pandemic, concern was mounting as Nunavut announced eight new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the number of cases in the territory to 26.
The territory, which announced its first confirmed case earlier this month, is tightening up restrictions to try and clamp down on the virus: schools will close, as will recreation facilities, bars and restaurants.
In neighbouring Northwest Territories, which has seen 15 cases to date, health officials are revising rules around travel to require most people coming from Nunavut to self-isolate for 14 days. The two northern governments had formed a “travel bubble” in the summer allowing for easy movement between the territories.
Yukon, which has seen 24 cases of COVID-19, reported no new cases on Monday.
In British Columbia, case numbers are on the rise — with the vast majority of new cases coming in the Lower Mainland. Health officials said Monday that 1,959 cases of COVID-19 and nine additional deaths were recorded in B.C. over a three-day period.
“Many of the settings that we are talking about are settings where people would not naturally wear a mask, like in your home or at a party.”
WATCH | Dr. Bonnie Henry talks about COVID-19 in B.C. and why she’s not pushing for a mask mandate:
Dr. Bonnie Henry says current coronavirus transmission is largely driven by social gatherings in private spaces where a mask mandate would not have an impact. 2:05
In Alberta, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the province has entered a “deeply concerning” period of “exponential growth” of COVID-19.
Hinshaw said the province — which as of Monday had more than 10,000 active cases and more than 260 COVID-19 patients in hospital — is in a “second wave at this point in time.”
“But again it’s up to us where that wave peaks and how quickly we can bring it down.”
In Saskatchewan, health officials reported 181 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the number of active cases in the province close to 2,000. New restrictions came into effect on Monday, but Premier Scott Moe said his government is considering further measures.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority has said that, based on the test positivity rate, it’s preparing for more people to be hospitalized and to need intensive care over the next couple of weeks.
What’s happening around the world
From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 9:25 a.m. ET
A ‘Stay Home’ sign is taped to a driver’s vehicle as she passes Christmas lights during a car caravan of nurses calling for people to remain home amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in hard-hit El Paso, Texas, on Monday. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
As of early Tuesday morning, more than 55 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with more than 35.4 million of those cases considered recovered, according to a tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The COVID-19 tracking tool put the global death toll at more than 1.3 million.
In the Americas, U.S. president-elect Joe Biden said “more people may die” if outgoing President Donald Trump continues to block a transition of power as the pandemic worsens.
With Iowa hospitals filling up, Gov. Kim Reynolds has dropped her opposition to a statewide mandate for mask use to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Reynolds signed a proclamation Monday requiring that everyone over two years old wear masks when in indoor public spaces.
But South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is showing no sign of budging from her hands-off approach to the pandemic, despite her state having the nation’s highest death rate this month.
South Dakota has reported 219 deaths in November — about a third of all its deaths over the course of the pandemic. The COVID-19 deaths have sent the state to the top of the nation in deaths per capita this month, with nearly 25 deaths per 100,000 people.
Still, Noem, a Republican, has no plans to issue mask requirements
In California, meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was pulling the “emergency brake” on the state’s efforts to reopen its economy as coronavirus cases surge more dramatically than during a summer spike. Newsom will impose more restrictions on businesses across most of the state. He said masks would now be required outside homes with limited exceptions.
A large container of hand sanitizer sits on a desk for students to use in Grade 2 instructor Marisela Sahagun’s classroom at St. Joseph Catholic School in La Puente, Calif., on Monday, where pre-kindergarten to Grade 2 students in need of special services returned to the classroom for in-person instruction. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)
Newsom’s action, which takes effect Tuesday, will put most of the state’s 58 counties in the strictest of the four-tier system for reopening that is based on virus case rates. That tier closes many non-essential indoor businesses.
Counties with lower rates have had more freedom for businesses to operate, schools to open for classroom instruction and for formal gatherings like religious services.
In the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea said it will tighten physical distancing rules in the greater Seoul area and some parts of eastern Gangwon province to try to suppress a coronavirus resurgence there.
Tuesday’s announcement came as South Korea’s daily virus tally stayed above 200 for a fourth straight day. The country has been experiencing a steady increase in virus infections since it relaxed its physical distancing guidelines last month.
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said it was necessary to adjust the distancing rules for two weeks.
Australia’s fifth most populous state reported one new COVID-19 case overnight, dampening fears of another deadly cluster emerging.
New Zealand, meanwhile, has made masks mandatory from Thursday for users of public transport in Auckland as well as on all domestic flights.
WATCH | Moderna COVID-19 vaccine shows positive early results:
A COVID-19 vaccine from biotech company Moderna has shown promising early results, appearing to be 94.5 per cent effective, and the company says that it may apply for emergency use in the U.S. within weeks. 3:24
In the Middle East, Beirut’s popular Sabra market teemed with shoppers this week, some of them unmasked, in apparent defiance of a full national lockdown imposed on Saturday to stem a resurgence of coronavirus infections.
The Lebanese government ordered the two-week restrictions, including a 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew on Sundays, as new daily infections rose above 1,000.
Lebanon reported 1,016 new infections on Monday, bringing its total to 106,446 cases and 827 deaths since Feb. 21.
Iran, which has seen more than 788,000 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the global pandemic, reported a record 13,053 new infections and 486 deaths over the previous 24 hours on Monday as the government planned tougher restrictions.
South Africa remained the hardest-hit country in Africa, with more than 752,000 cases reported and more than 20,000 deaths.
In Europe, Austria has started a new tough lockdown meant to slow the surging spread of the coronavirus in the Alpine nation. As of Tuesday, people are only allowed to leave their homes to purchase groceries, to go to jobs deemed essential, to exercise or to help people who need assistance.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Monday ahead of the lockdown, which is to run through Dec. 6, that “all of social and public life will be brought down to a minimum.”
Windows of a fairground ride are closed at the Wiener Prater amusement park on Tuesday in Vienna. Austria is toughening its anti-coronavirus restrictions, shutting schools and shops until Dec. 6 to get spiralling numbers of infections under control. (Philip Stotter/APA/AFP/Getty Images)
Austria currently is registering more than 527 new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days — more than 10 times the rate that authorities say is sustainable. Over the last seven days it has reported 46,946 new coronavirus infections.
Italian authorities have inspected more than 230 nursing homes as part of the health ministry’s anti-coronavirus controls, identifying 37 with violations and flagging 11 people to law enforcement for possible prosecution.
The violations included lack of protective equipment and training for health-care workers, insufficient hygiene and missing anti-COVID protocols. In addition, inspectors found other underlying violations of health norms, including overcrowding, abusive treatment of the elderly, expired medicine, poor food safety and unqualified staff.
VANCOUVER – A disciplinary investigation has found a former Vancouver police sergeant shared “disrespectful” commentary on a fellow officer’s court testimony about being sexually assaulted by a colleague.
The decision against Narinder Dosanjh, obtained by The Canadian Press, includes the running commentary on the woman’s testimony — apparently written by someone inside the courtroom — that calls her a “bad drunk” and says there was “no way” her case would be proved.
Former New Westminster police chief Dave Jansen, the external officer who rendered the decision against Dosanjh, says his assessment accounts for a culture of treating officers who testify against each other as “rats.”
Former Vancouver constable Jagraj Roger Berar was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting the woman, who can’t be identified because of a publication ban on her name.
Jansen says in his ruling, dated Oct. 11, that the comments in a Vancouver police group chat appear “supportive” of Berar and reflect “all-too-common myths” about women who make sexual assault allegations.
While Jansen found Dosanjh committed discreditable conduct by sharing the chats, a complaint against a more-senior Vancouver officer who was inside the courtroom, and who the victim and other officers believed wrote the commentary, were not substantiated.
The ruling says Jansen, who retired as New Westminster’s chief constable, would accept submissions before deciding how Dosanjh should be punished.
The woman who was assaulted was the complainant in the disciplinary investigation, and said in an interview she felt “vindicated” by Jansen’s decision because it “truly paints what I’ve been through,” after reporting a fellow officer for sexual assault.
She said many other women in municipal policing fear speaking out about ill-treatment at work, and some have told her about being assaulted and harassed but feared ruining their careers if they complained.
“This decision is important for those women to see,” she said. “It shows the tides are changing. Like, this is the first win I’ve had.”
A spokesman for the Surrey Police Service, where Dosanjh now works, did not immediately answer a question about how he was penalized, and said Dosanjh declined an interview request with The Canadian Press.
In his decision, Jansen said there was an “unfortunate but often pervasive” culture of treating officers who complain as “‘rats’, who betrayed their colleagues.”
“In terms of the messages themselves, Sergeant Dosanjh alleges that they are not degrading, humiliating or derogatory and do not attack the personal character of the complainant. I disagree,” Jansen wrote.
The decision includes a screenshot of the commentary about the complainant, who said the order of the messages appeared to refer to her evidence while she was being cross-examined and suggested the comments were written by someone listening to her testimony.
The commentary on a Vancouver police chat group on the Signal messaging app said the victim “wore a wire twice,” and “admitted in cross to possibly drinking way more alcohol than she originally claimed.”
“Her memory is super hazy and there’s no way you can prove beyond reasonable doubt,” the person wrote.
“And she admitted that she is really bad drunk,” they added.
Another message said it was a “nail in the coffin” of the case that video showed the complainant “cuddling, holding hands” with Berar.
The victim, who became aware of the commentary when a friend in the department showed them to her, was distressed by the messages and disputed their accuracy, said Jansen.
“The comments also appear to reflect some of the all-too-common myths around women making allegations of sexual assault. Some of these myths include the belief that because a victim socialized with the perpetrator, or engaged in some consensual activity with him, therefore she must have consented to the assault,” he wrote.
Jansen’s decision said Dosanjh shared the messages with a fellow officer after getting them from a “VPD chat group that he claims he knew little about, from a co-worker he claims not to be able to identify.”
The decision said other officers believed the commentary was written bya more-senior officer in the department who had been present at the trial, but Jansen said the discreditable conduct complaint against that person was unsubstantiated.
The decision said Dosanjh claimed he was the “fall guy” and “a pawn in a broader game.”
Jansen’s decision said Dosanjh was a senior officer and supervisor who was aware of the “vulnerability of victims of sexual crimes and of the myths that surround sexual assault victims.”
It said Dosanjh’s “distribution of these messages that were disrespectful of an alleged victim of sexual violence who was also a co-worker, should they become public, would likely discredit the reputation of the police force.”
The Vancouver Police Department did not immediately provide comment on Jansen’s decision.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
FREDERICTON – The offspring of beetles imported from British Columbia are ready to take up the fight against an invasive insect that is killing hemlock trees in Nova Scotia.
Last fall and spring, about 5,000 Laricobius nigrinus beetles — affectionately called Lari by scientists — made an overnight journey from the West Coast.
Lucas Roscoe, research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, says in the fight against the woolly adelgid that is destroying swaths of hemlock trees in Nova Scotia, the first step was to make sure the Lari beetle can survive a Nova Scotia winter.
The one-to-two-millimetre black flying beetles were released across six sites in Nova Scotia that had the woolly adelgids.
In one of the sites, scientists placed cages of imported beetles and about 60 per cent of them were able to survive the winter in Nova Scotia, which Roscoe says is an encouraging rate.
He says the woolly adelgid was first seen in southwestern Nova Scotia in 2017 and the peppercorn-sized insect, aided by climate change, has since spread north.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
Dozens of researchers across Canada, including renowned environmentalist David Suzuki, have joined a growing chorus of voices urging the federal government to halt the importation of an endangered monkey species for medical research in Quebec.
A letter signed by 80 scientists, academics, doctors and students says testing on long-tailed macaques from Cambodia should be banned due to ethical concerns and potential public-health risks.
“A decade ago, chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives, ceased to be used for experimentation because using such animal ‘models’ could no longer be justified from scientific, ethical, and/or financial perspectives,” says the letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his environment minister and the premier of Quebec.
The researchers say they are also concerned about “the serious risks of transmission of zoonotic pathogens” that could be associated with transporting macaques.
Their letter urges the federal government to end charter flights that have been bringing the macaques into Canada, and to adopt regulations banning the importation of all primates for biomedical testing.
It’s the latest group to add more pressure on Ottawa to suspend the monkey imports by Charles River Laboratories, a U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant that has a sprawling facility in Montreal.
The company announced in 2023 that it was halting macaque imports into the U.S., after it was subpoenaed in a case that involved the indictment of two senior Cambodian officials over what authorities described as “multiple felonies for their role in bringing wild long-tailed macaques into the United States.”
No charges have been brought against Charles River Laboratories, or any of its officials, and the company has said it will fully co-operate with the U.S. investigation.
At around the same time, imports of monkeys from Cambodia into Canada dramatically surged, with Statistics Canada data showing a 500 per cent increase in 2023 from the year before.
Environment and Climate Change Canada, the federal department responsible for monitoring commercial trade in wildlife, confirmed to the Canadian Press that Charles River Laboratories has imported 6,769 long-tailed macaques into the country between January 2023 and August of this year. The monetary value of these imported macaques is around $120 million dollars, according to Statistics Canada.
The department previously said that officials rigorously and closely inspect imports of foreign animals, including those brought in by Charles River Laboratories, and that all macaque imports so far this year have complied with federal and international wildlife regulations.
The government and the company have both said that no Canadian laws have been broken.
Last month, the Canadian Transportation Authority issued a permit for another shipment on a cargo plane chartered by Charles River Laboratories. A flight tracker shows that a plane with the same flight number as what is shown on the permit departed Phnom Penh, Cambodia last Thursday, and arrived in Montreal on Friday.
Jesse Greener, a professor of chemistry at Laval University who signed the researchers’ letter to the government, said medical technology has developed to a point that makes it unjustifiable for the pharmaceutical industry to continue using live primates for testing.
“The government should take a leadership role and help researchers and surely the private sector to pivot from using these unethical, and I would say old and outdated and unreliable animal models, and embrace these much more efficient and ethical approaches that are … exploding right now,” said Greener, who has done research on methods to replace animals in such experiments.
“It is grotesque,” he said of the animal use. “It is time that we change the page on this chapter of terrible research and commercial activities.”
Canada banned the use of animals for cosmetic testing last year, but it is still legal to use live primates for drug testing purposes.
The federal government said a draft strategy aimed at reducing and replacing the use of animals in drug testing was published in September and open to public consultations for 60 days.
The strategy, which will be revised based on input from researchers, experts and others, is expected to be published in June 2025, it said.
“The government of Canada is committed to advancing efforts to replace, reduce, or refine the use of vertebrate animals in toxicity testing where possible,” Environment and Climate Change Canada said in a statement Tuesday.
Charles River Laboratories previously told The Canadian Press that while it is also committed to reducing its use of live primates, global regulatory bodies require drugs to be tested on animals before they are evaluated in humans.
The company said the use of non-human primates has been vital in developing treatments for various diseases and that the standards it applies in its facilities are exceeding global norms.
Matthew Green, a New Democrat MP who had previously called on the federal government to halt the latest shipment of macaques, said he has “great concern” about importing this exotic animal.
“Generally in Canada, Canadians like to believe that our government has higher regulations and more stringent enforcement protocols when it comes to protecting endangered species, yet this is not the case in comparison to what the United States has done,” he said.
Green and two of his NDP colleagues wrote a letter to three federal ministers last month, demanding an “immediate attention” to the issue.
The Animal Alliance of Canada also sent a letter to the environment minister in August, urging the immediate suspension of monkey importation from Cambodia.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
