Thousands of elementary school students headed back to in-person classes in Quebec on Monday, amid debate over how to best reduce COVID-19 transmission in schools and whether classrooms should even be reopening at all.
The province, which has struggled to bring down case counts and hospitalizations, is implementing new infection control measures following the holiday break. Students in elementary school are now required to wear masks in hallways, common spaces and buses, and those in Grades 5 and 6 will also have to wear a mask inside their classrooms.
But some experts, parents and unions say the government needs to do more to keep classrooms safe from COVID-19.
Quebec is restarting elementary classes in person on Monday after a week of online learning, while high school students will continue learning online for another week before in-person classes resume on Jan. 18. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)
In particular, Education Minister Jean-François Roberge’s decision to forgo installing air purifiers in classrooms is being criticized by advocates who believe it is essential to combating aerosol transmission of COVID-19.
One of Quebec’s largest teachers’ unions is also proposing cutting class sizes in half by alternating the days students attend school in-person, which was already being done in some high schools.
While Quebec, Alberta and other provinces are sending many students back to classrooms this week after an extended break, Ontario has reversed course on part of its back-to-school plan.
Ontario was set to reopen elementary schools in the southern half of the province on Monday, but delayed that move by two weeks in the face of surging case counts and a spike in positivity rates among children.
The province’s chief medical officer of health said last week the positivity rate for kids aged 12 to 13 years old increased from 5.44 per cent in late November and early December to nearly 20 per cent in early January.
WATCH | Similar COVID-19 numbers but Alberta and Ontario diverge on schools:
Two provinces with similar COVID-19 infection numbers have made opposite decisions on school going forward. Alberta is sending kids back to the classroom next week, while Ontario is keeping most students at home. 2:00
Elementary students and secondary students in the seven northern Ontario public health unit regions, where COVID-19 case numbers have been much lower, are returning to in-person learning on Monday as planned.
What’s happening across Canada
As of 7:30 a.m. ET on Monday, Canada had reported 660,289 cases of COVID-19, with 84,567 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 16,950.
The federal government is introducing legislation to close a loophole that allows Canadians who travelled abroad to claim up to $1,000 in sick pay while quarantining back home.
The Canada recovery sickness benefit has been available to those who are unable to work for at least half of their scheduled work week because they tested positive for COVID-19 or are isolating due to the virus. But critics have warned it could be going to Canadians completing their mandatory 14-day quarantine after returning from personal vacations abroad.
WATCH | These longtime Ontario snowbirds stayed north this winter:
Bob Slack and his wife Lois are living in their winterized cottage near Brockville, Ont., enjoying watching nature out their windows and going for walks. 1:17
In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick continues to see a spike in cases, announcing 14 more on Sunday.
The surge there prompted Nova Scotia’s premier to announce last week that anyone coming into the province from New Brunswick must now self-isolate. Nova Scotiaon Sunday saw no new cases in the province for the first time since November.
Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador recorded its first new case in five days. According to the Department of Health, the case is related to international travel.
WATCH | Doctors share experience of getting COVID-19 vaccine:
Two doctors share their experiences getting the COVID-19 vaccine, what it means to them and why they want others to see them getting the shot. 2:33
Meanwhile, the province’s first night of a curfew to curb the spread of COVID-19 resulted in dozens of tickets being given out, including to people who were protesting public health measures.
Sources have told CBC News that Ontario’s latest COVID-19 modelling, due to be released publicly on Tuesday, will project the province’s intensive care units to be filled beyond capacity by early February.
In British Columbia, the Vancouver Canucks are returning to practice Monday morning after cancelling practice and workouts Sunday due to potential COVID-19 exposure.
Lockdowns alone won’t be effective enough at curbing the coronavirus unless the government takes steps to address a key driver of infections – workplaces – by helping to make them safer, says Dr. Isaac Bogoch, a member of Ontario’s COVID-19 task force. 6:55
What’s happening around the world
As of early Monday morning, more than 90.3 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with more than 50 million of those considered recovered or resolved, according to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 case tracking tool. The global death toll stood at more than 1.9 million.
In Europe, authorities in northern France launched a weeklong mass testing program on Monday to assess the rate of coronavirus infections and the spread of a more contagious variant that first appeared in southern England in November.
France has been criticized for its slow vaccination program, with only 80,000 French citizens having been vaccinated against the coronavirus as of Friday. Neighbouring Germany has conducted hundreds of thousands of inoculations.
A medic receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination centre in Sarcelles near Paris on Sunday. (Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images)
In Asia, Indonesia gave Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine its first emergency use approval outside China on Monday as the world’s fourth-most populous country launches nationwide inoculations to stem surging infections and deaths.
But a lack of data and varying efficacy rates reported for the vaccine from different countries could undermine public trust in the rollout, according to public health experts. Interim data from a late-stage human test of CoronaVac showed it is 65.3 per cent effective, Indonesia’s food and drugs authority BPOM said — lower than figures in Brazil and Turkey, which have yet to launch mass vaccinations.
Chinese health authorities say scores more people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Hebei province bordering on the capital Beijing.
The outbreak focused on the Hebei cities of Shijiazhuang and Xingtai is one of China’s most serious in recent months and comes amid measures to curb the further spread during next month’s Lunar New Year holiday. Authorities have called on citizens not to travel, ordered schools closed a week early and conducted testing on a massive scale.
Schools have reopened partially in Sri Lanka after being closed for nearly three months. The government decided not to reopen schools in the capital Colombo and its suburbs as the majority of recent COVID-19 cases are reported from those areas.
In the Americas, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee said Sunday he has tested positive for the coronavirus after coming into contact with another member of Congress with whom he shares a residence in Washington. Fleischmann said he is “feeling okay” and is consulting with the Capitol’s attending physician.
People arrive to receive a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site at South Bronx Educational Campus in New York on Sunday. (Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images)
The spokesperson for Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Sunday he has tested positive for coronavirus, but there was no word on whether the president had been tested.
In Africa, South Africa is struggling to cope with a spike in COVID-19 cases that has already overwhelmed some hospitals, as people returning from widespread holiday travel along the coast spread the country’s more infectious coronavirus variant.
Of particular concern is Gauteng province, the country’s most populous, which includes the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. Authorities say it is already seeing a spike in new infections after people travelled to coastal areas, where the variant is dominant.
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.
