OTTAWA —
Canada’s first vaccinations against COVID-19 could begin happening as early as next week, pending Health Canada approval.
Canada will be receiving an initial batch of up to 249,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine before the end of December, with the first shipment expected next week. This means people could begin receiving vaccinations, on a priority basis, very soon after.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement Monday on Parliament Hill, alongside Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand, Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo, and Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin.
In French, the prime minister said the administration of vaccines once on Canadian soil, will happen quickly.
“This will move us forward on our whole timeline of vaccine rollout, and is a positive development in getting Canadians protected as soon as possible,” said Trudeau.
“It is a gradual process that is going to begin… next week. But let us remember at the beginning there will be smaller amounts of vaccines, because we are both standing up our delivery mechanisms, but also because manufacturers are limited in what they’re able to produce for this vaccine,” said the prime minister. “The large mass-manufacturing will be happening into 2021, but with these 249,000 doses coming in December, we will be able to begin on the most vulnerable populations and make sure that we have the logistical grounding foundation in place to be able to deliver right across the country over the first months of 2021.”
While the first vaccines could be administered sooner than expected, it will still be a long while before the public can let their guard down.
“I think it’s a huge tool in our tool shed but it’s certainly not the only one available to us,” CTV News Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Abdu Sharkawy told Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme.
“The light at the end of that tunnel has become a lot brighter but that tunnel is still very long. There’s still going to be a lot of gaps between people who are immunized and not, and it can take anywhere from three weeks to three months for immunity to be fully constituted, so we’ve got a lot of hard work to do yet.”
Fortin — who is leading the National Operations Centre within the Public Health Agency of Canada that’s focused on the logistics of the rollout — said that within one or two days of shipments arriving in Canada, vaccines could be ready to be administered, contingent on the vaccine being deemed safe for use in Canada.
“Based on the fact that once you receive the product, you have to unpack, thaw, decant, mix. So that’s a relatively fast process for the health professional,” Fortin said.
In an interview on CTV’s Power Play, Anand denied political pressures played a role in reworking the Pfizer agreement. Trudeau had earlier tried to temper expectations around how quickly Canadians could have access to vaccines, given the lack of domestic manufacturing capacity in this country.
APPROVAL IMMINENT?
Health Canada has not yet approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate for use in this country, though senior officials have signalled that the independent agency is close to completing its efficacy and safety assessment and it could come this week. It began scrutinizing the data from Pfizer’s clinical trials in early October.
The United Kingdom has approved the vaccine for use, and the United States Food and Drug Administration is set to give the pharmaceutical giant’s vaccine the green light to roll out to Americans this week.
Health Canada’s chief medical adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma said last Thursday that the review of Pfizer’s vaccine candidate is progressing “very well” but the agency was awaiting some “key” information coming in the next few days, including quality assurance checks on the specific batches destined for Canada.
Meanwhile, those in the scientific community have been trying to get the message out to Canadians hesitant to take a vaccine developed so quickly that no corners were cut.
“There’s always been a little bit of concern that these have been rushed through, but we can feel reassured that these trials have been done on thousands and thousands of people,” Sharkawy said.
“I’d be ready to roll up my sleeves tomorrow if the opportunity presented itself.”
The initial doses will arrive in a series of shipments and altogether would be enough to fully vaccinate approximately 124,500 Canadians, as the vaccine requires two needles, weeks apart.
Trudeau said he anticipates the “vast majority” of the initial doses will go towards both the first and second shots for the first batch of recipients, but the government is anticipating a steady stream of additional doses in the weeks and months ahead.
Anand said on CTV’s Power Play that one ongoing “very live” issue is setting up a system to record doses administered, and where they were given, in order to be able to keep track of who has received their full inoculation. She said there is a need to have this sorted before the vaccinations begin.
“Part of the challenge of the logistical delivery is to see whether those doses can be properly stored and delivered a few weeks later to the same people. That’s what Pfizer as a company is looking for. You can imagine that any responsible company like Pfizer is going to want to make sure that none of their vaccines are going to be wasted through inability to properly store, transport, or administer. Every single dose of those vaccines are extraordinarily precious right now,” said the prime minister.
COVID-19 vaccines will be offered to Canadians free of charge, will not be mandatory, and will eventually be available to all who want to be vaccinated.
These early vaccines will be the first allotment of what was Canada’s deal with Pfizer for up to 76 million doses. Initially, the country is only anticipating receiving up to four million of those doses by March 2021.
In total, Canada has signed deals with seven vaccine manufacturers, four of which are currently being scrutinized by Health Canada. If all vaccines pan out, Canada would have access through its contracts to 414 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Our goal continues to be to ensure that Canada has the vaccines, logistics systems, and supplies in place to further combat COVID-19, and we will not rest until we climb this mountain,” Anand said during Monday’s press conference.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is recommending that residents and staff of long-term care, assisted living and similar facilities; individuals aged 80 years and older; health-care and personal support workers with the highest exposure risk; and Indigenous communities get first access to vaccines.
Trudeau said that these Pfizer vaccines and all eventual doses are expected to be divided up between provinces and territories on a per capita basis.
“Every province and territory might have a slightly different experience, and so how they receive the vaccines and prioritize and actually deliver those initial doses to their population I think certainly will be based on their own experience and what they determine is best for their individual context,” said Dr. Njoo.
PROVINCES NEED TO BE READY
Anand said on Monday that Pfizer needs to be assured that the provinces and territories are ready to receive those doses before the shipments happen.
“Once we are assured of provincial and territorial readiness to receive. Then we will be able to pass the baton to the provinces and territories,” said Anand.
On Monday, provinces made assurances that they will be ready.
“Quebec vaccination will start as soon as we receive the first doses,” said Quebec Minister of Health and Social Services Christian Dube, adding that of the first allotment, he expects his province to receive 4,000 doses, enough for 2,000 Quebecers, mainly in long-term care homes. He is then anticipating enough vaccines between Dec. 21 and Jan. 4 to vaccinate between 22,000 and 28,000 people. “Which is a good number,” he said.
“In our phase one, we want to get the vulnerable, and the health-care workers, and we know that we will have more demand in those two groups than we will have vaccines to satisfy, so we can’t do it all at once,” said chair of Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution task force, retired Gen. Rick Hillier on Monday.
“So we will go for example towards the people in long-term care homes, who are in the hot zones, who are in the lockdown zones… And we will go for places where there is congregate living, where there is communal dining, where there is more than one person sharing a room, and we’ll go into places where they’ve had problems with COVID-19 and suffered tragically from it,” Hillier said.
In an interview on CTV’s Power Play, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said that in-province work is underway to make sure the vials can be safely transported.
Furey said that he first got the head’s up about the timeline for the initial doses on a Sunday night phone call with representatives from the federal government, though Hillier said he first heard the news on Monday.
“This is a trial for the rest of the world, so we’re anxiously watching what’s happening in other jurisdictions, but certainly some of the more stable vaccines would seem to be more palatable option, especially when you’re considering the rural and coastal communities of Labrador which obviously have higher risk of vulnerability with respect to Indigenous communities,” he said.
Fortin said that this week a “dry run” of the Pfizer rollout will take place, to ensure that there are no kinks in the ultra-cold storage delivery chain, including by the health professionals who will ultimately be handling the shots. Fortin had said on Friday that the dress rehearsal was to happen Monday.
“Pfizer, the Public Health Agency and the provinces are working together to finalize preparations at the first 14 vaccination sites this week,” Trudeau said. These sites are largely in major cities across the country—one in each province, and two in each of the four largest provinces—with plans to add additional sites in the months ahead. For the initial rollout, vaccine recipients may have to travel to these centralized sites to be given the Pfizer vaccine.
The dry run will be used to confirm the ordering, shipping and importation processes, and the initial dry run will use a shipping container with dry ice and a data-logger to simulate a shipment of the vaccine, according to the government.
“Boxes are in the air right now. They left Belgium and they’re on their way to the next transit node in the cold chain. They’re being monitored, so we will learn — this is one way this week where we will learn how the process will flow and if adjustments need to be made — Pfizer will learn just as much,” he said.
Fortin’s plan has been to be prepared to deploy the rollout by mid-December, in anticipation of Canada’s vaccine administration effort commencing in earnest in January.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Alaska man accused of sending graphic threats to injure and kill six Supreme Court justices and some of their family members has been indicted on federal charges, authorities said Thursday.
Panos Anastasiou, 76, is accused of sending more than 465 messages through a public court website, including graphic threats of assassination and torture coupled with racist and homophobic rhetoric.
The indictment does not specify which justices Anastasiou targeted, but Attorney General Merrick Garland said he made the graphic threats as retaliation for decisions he disagreed with.
“Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families,” he said.
Anastasiou has been indicted on 22 counts, including nine counts of making threats against a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce.
He was released from detention late Thursday by a federal magistrate in Anchorage with a a list of conditions, including that he not directly or indirectly contact any of the six Supreme Court justices he allegedly threatened or any of their family members.
During the hearing that lasted more than hour, Magistrate Kyle Reardon noted some of the messages Anastasiou allegedly sent between March 2023 and mid-July 2024, including calling for the assassination of two of the Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices so the current Democratic president could appoint their successors.
Instead of toning down his rhetoric after receiving a visit from FBI agents last year, Anastasiou increased the frequency of his messages and their vitriolic language, Reardon said.
Gray-haired and shackled at the ankles above his salmon-colored plastic slippers, Anastasiou wore a yellow prison outfit with ACC printed in black on the back, the initials for the Anchorage Correctional Facility, at the hearing. Born in Greece, he moved to Anchorage 67 years ago. Reardon allowed him to contact his elected officials on other matters like global warming, but said the messages must be reviewed by his lawyers.
Defense attorney Jane Imholte noted Anastasiou is a Vietnam veteran who is undergoing treatment for throat cancer and has no financial means other than his Social Security benefits.
She told the judge that Anastaiou, who signed his own name to the emails, worried about his pets while being detained. She said he only wanted to return home to care for his dogs, Freddie, Buddy and Cutie Pie.
He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for each count of making threats against a federal judge and up to five years for each count of making threats in interstate commerce if convicted.
Threats targeting federal judges overall have more than doubled in recent years amid a surge of similar violent messages directed at public officials around the country, the U.S. Marshals Service previously said.
In 2022, shortly after the leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, a man was stopped near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh with weapons and zip ties.
ROME (AP) — Canadian and Italian dignitaries on Thursday marked the successful recovery of a photo portrait of Winston Churchill known as “The Roaring Lion,” stolen in Canada and recovered in Italy after a two-year search by police.
At a ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Rome, Italian carabinieri police handed over the portrait to the Canadian ambassador to Italy, Elissa Goldberg, who praised the cooperation between Italian and Canadian investigators that led to the recovery.
The 1941 portrait of the British leader taken by Ottawa photographer Yousuf Karsh is now ready for the last step of its journey home to the Fairmont Château Laurier, the hotel in Ottawa where it was stolen and will once again be displayed as a notable historic portrait.
Canadian police said the portrait was stolen from the hotel sometime between Christmas 2021 and Jan. 6, 2022, and replaced with a forgery. The swap was only uncovered months later, in August, when a hotel worker noticed the frame was not hung properly and looked different than the others.
Nicola Cassinelli, a lawyer in Genoa, Italy, purchased the portrait in May 2022 at an online Sotheby’s auction for 5,292 British pounds. He says he got a phone call from the auction house that October advising him not to sell or otherwise transfer the portrait due to an investigation into the Ottawa theft.
Cassinelli, who attended Thursday’s ceremony, said he thought he was buying a regular print and quickly agreed to send the iconic Churchill photograph home when he learned its true story.
“I immediately decided to return it to the Chateau Laurier, because I think that if Karsh donated it to the hotel, it means he really wanted it to stay there, for the particular significance this hotel had for him, and for his wife too,” Cassinelli told The Associated Press.
The famous image was taken by Karsh during Churchill’s wartime visit to the Canadian Parliament in December 1941. It helped launch Karsh’s career, who photographed some of the 20th century’s most famed icons, including Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein and Queen Elizabeth.
Karsh and his wife Estrellita gifted an original signed print to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in 1998. The couple had lived and operated a studio inside the hotel for nearly two decades.
Geneviève Dumas, general manager of the Fairmont Château Laurier, said on Thursday she felt immensely grateful.
“I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to everybody involved in solving this case, and ensuring the safe return of this priceless piece of history.”
Police arrested a 43-year-old man from Powassan, Ontario, in April and have charged him with stealing and trafficking the portrait. The man, whose name is protected by a publication ban, faces charges that include forgery, theft over $5,000 and trafficking in property obtained by crime exceeding $5,000.
CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed the United States in part on Thursday for the surge in cartel violence terrorizing the northern state of Sinaloa which has left at least 30 people dead in the past week.
Two warring factions of the Sinaloa cartel have clashed in the state capital of Culiacan in what appears to be a fight for power since two of its leaders were arrested in the United States in late July. Teams of gunmen have shot at each other and the security forces.
Meanwhile, dead bodies continued to pop up around the city. On one busy street corner, cars drove by pools of the blood leading to a body in a car mechanic shop, while heavily armed police in black masks loaded up another body stretched out on a side street of the Sinaloan city.
Asked at his morning briefing if the U.S. government was “jointly responsible” for this violence in Sinaloa, the president said, “Yes, of course … for having carried out this operation.”
The recent surge in cartel warfare had been expected after Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, landed near El Paso, Texas on July 25 in a small plane with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Zambada was the cartel’s elder figure and reclusive leader. After his arrest, he said in a letter circulated by his lawyer that he had been abducted by the younger Guzmán and taken to the U.S. against his will.
On Thursday afternoon, another military operation covered the north of Culiacan with military and circling helicopters.
Traffic was heavy in Culiacan and most schools were open, even though parents were still not sending their children to classes. Businesses continue to close early and few people venture out after dark. While the city has slowly reopened and soldiers patrol the streets, many families continue to hide away, with parents and teachers fearing they’ll be caught in the crossfire.
“Where is the security for our children, for ourselves too, for all citizens? It’s so dangerous here, you don’t want to go outside,” one Culiacan mother told the Associated Press.
The mother, who didn’t want to share her name out of fear of the cartels, said that while some schools have recently reopened, she hasn’t allowed her daughter to go for two weeks. She said she was scared to do so after armed men stopped a taxi they were traveling in on their way home, terrifying her child.
During his morning press briefing, López Obrador had claimed American authorities “carried out that operation” to capture Zambada and that “it was totally illegal, and agents from the Department of Justice were waiting for Mr. Mayo.”
“If we are now facing instability and clashes in Sinaloa, it is because they (the American government) made that decision,” he said.
He added that there “cannot be a cooperative relationship if they take unilateral decisions” like this. Mexican prosecutors have said they were considering bringing treason charges against those involved in the plan to nab Zambada.
He was echoed by President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who said later in the day that “we can never accept that there is no communication or collaboration.”
It’s the latest escalation of tensions in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Last month, the Mexican president said he was putting relations with the U.S. and Canadian embassies “on pause” after ambassadors criticized his controversial plan to overhaul Mexico’s judiciary by requiring all judges to stand for election.
Still, the Zambada capture has fueled criticisms of López Obrador, who has throughout his administration refused to confront cartels in a strategy he refers to as “hugs not bullets.” On previous occasions, he falsely stated that cartels respect Mexican citizens and largely fight amongst themselves.
While the president, who is set to leave office at the end of the month, has promised his plan would reduce cartel violence, such clashes continue to plague Mexico. Cartels employ an increasing array of tactics, including roadside bombs or IEDs, trenches, home-made armored vehicles and bomb-dropping drones.
