As North America prepares for a once-in-a-lifetime solar event, school districts across eastern Canada are weighing potential learning opportunities against possible risks, with most coming down solidly on the side of safety.
Many school boards are making arrangements to ensure students are not at school during the total solar eclipse on April 8, cancelling classes or opting for early dismissal. They cite concerns that kids might damage their eyes by looking directly at the sun, or that the mid-afternoon darkness will make their trek home dangerous.
The path of totality — an approximately 200-kilometre-wide swath where the moon fully blocks the light of the sun — stretches through cities and towns in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. While the full eclipse will only last from one to three minutes, the event is expected to last for more than two hours during mid or late afternoon.
In Toronto, which falls just outside the path of totality and will only experience a partial eclipse that will peak at 3:19 p.m. ET, the city’s biggest school board rescheduled a professional development day for teachers from April 19 to April 8.
“As the eclipse will occur around the dismissal times of many schools, there were concerns that children would be outside and possibly looking directly at the sun, which without appropriate protection, can lead to serious problems such as partial or complete loss of eyesight,” reads a letter to parents, signed by Toronto District School Board director Colleen Russell-Rawlins.
Painless in the moment
The safety issues aren’t to be taken lightly, according to a Toronto ophthalmologist who specializes in retinal diseases.
When a person looks at the sun, it’s typically so bright that their eyes will reflexively close from irritation, said Panos Christakis. But during an eclipse, only a fraction of the light comes through, so your eyes can tolerate looking for a longer period, increasing the risk of damage.
WATCH | Ways to safely watch the eclipse:
How to watch the solar eclipse safely: A physics professor explains
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A UPEI physics professor says people shouldn’t watch the April 8 solar eclipse for too long — even with the proper glasses. Maria Kilfoil, joins CBC News: Compass to talk about the best, and safest, way to watch it.
It would be painless at the moment, so a person would not realize until it was too late that they had permanently lost a significant amount of central vision, a condition called solar retinopathy.
That puts a heavy burden of responsibility on teachers in a classroom setting, he said.
“It just might be hard if a class is looking at this eclipse, having people monitoring to make sure that kids are not looking around the special glasses or are not using the right protection,” Christakis said.
A photo of the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, shows the sun’s outer atmosphere — a white ring called the corona — peeking out behind the moon. (Philippe Moussette)
Eclipse-safe eye protection, such as the ISO 12312-2 glasses, are specifically developed and tested to prevent eye damage during an eclipse. But they’re not effective if they’re not being worn, he said.
“They’re thousands of times darker than regular sunglasses, so really, you can’t see anything except an extremely bright light,” he said.
“Kids may be underwhelmed by that experience and start peeking around them.”
Learning opportunity of a lifetime
Tracy Webb, an astrophysicist with the Trottier Space Institute at Montreal’s McGill University, worries the school closures are depriving kids of a valuable learning experience.
Montreal is in the path of totality, and most schools and daycares — including the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal, one of the city’s three major French language school boards in the city — will be closed on April 8.
“It is their job to keep the kids safe during school hours and I appreciate that,” Webb said.
“But at the same time, it’s important to be reasonable and not blow it into something that it’s not.”
On April 8, a total solar eclipse is set to pass through parts of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Andrew Chang explains what makes a total eclipse so special, and why this is likely the only one you will ever experience.
Webb said the approximately minute-and-a-half of darkness in Montreal — which will not be pitch black, but rather similar to dawn or dusk — is “not going to cause chaos in the city.”
Webb plans to bring her kids to work with her that day to watch the eclipse. Ideally, she said, everyone would get the day off to view the rare spectacle together.
“My worry about closing schools is that only the kids whose parents can take time off work will be able to experience the eclipse now, whereas maybe school boards and the government could have organized something with the schools so that those kids had a chance also to see the eclipse,” she said.
Why are P.E.I. schools closing early for a solar eclipse?
Students on the Island will get out of class two hours early on April 8, the day the province will experience a full solar eclipse. Find out the reasons behind the move and where it’s left parents.
Montreal scientists Pierre Chastenay and Camille Turcotte penned an open letter in Le Journal de Montreal stating the Quebec government was fuelling hysteria and causing confusion by recommending closures.
Discover the Universe, a program run by Canadian astronomers that offers astronomy training for teachers, encouraged schools to offer opportunities for viewings, writing on its website that enabling students to engage with the eclipse “is the safest and most productive course of action schools can take.”
Proceeding with caution
In the United States, some schools are cancelling classes while others are organizing group viewings, even busing students into the path of totality. Teachers in Dallas were told at a teaching workshop that it would be “almost criminal” to keep students inside during the eclipse, according to the Associated Press.
In Canada, most major school boards are erring on the side of caution.
While most Ontario boards are rescheduling a professional development day, Ottawa’s biggest school board didn’t have a spare day to move so it’s simply eliminating a teaching day.
Prince Edward Island students will be dismissed two hours early “out of an abundance of caution,” the provincial government said in a news release. Alberton, P.E.I., will have one of the longest viewings in Canada, lasting for three minutes and three seconds when it happens at 4:35 AT.
When the sun, moon and Earth line up on April 8, Hilding Neilson will be outside looking up — even if it’s pouring rain. Neilson is hosting the Solar Eclipse Soiree in Gander, a four-day festival celebrating the science, culture and fun of this stellar moment.
Students in New Brunswick may be sent home early so they can “safely arrive at their after-school destination before the eclipse begins,” said the province’s education department.
The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District has not announced plans to dismiss early, though it will experience the eclipse later in the day, hitting Gander at 5:12 p.m. NT. The eclipse will just skim the northern tip of Nova Scotia, where it can be viewed in Meat Cove.
Map of the path of totality in Canada for the April 8 solar eclipse. (Canadian Space Agency)
Tips for safe viewing
Even if schools are opting out, Webb urges parents to seek out viewing events in their communities.
In Montreal, McGill University will host an eclipse fair where 20,000 pairs of protective glasses will be available for the public.
If you have eclipse glasses, Christakis said you can test them by looking at a bright, uncovered light bulb. You should just be able to see a “very faint dot.”
He emphasized that it’s only safe to remove the glasses during the brief period of totality, when the sun is completely eclipsed by the moon and only the sun’s corona is visible as a faint halo.
You will know this is happening when you no longer see anything through the glasses, he said. Once even a sliver of sun reappears, the glasses need to go back on.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience our kids probably should participate in, or consider participating in, but obviously in a safe manner — using the right glasses and supervised by an adult,” he said.
OTTAWA – The Liberal government has survived a second non-confidence vote in as many weeks, putting at bay once again the possibility Canada would be plunged into an immediate election campaign.
Members of Parliament voted on a Conservative motion this afternoon that called for MPs to declare they have lost faith in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his nine-year-old government.
The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois voted against the motion, as they did with a similar motion last week.
Last month, the NDP ended a supply-and-confidence agreement that had stabilized the minority government for more than two years.
Earlier in the day the Bloc forced a debate in the House of Commons about increasing old age security payments for all seniors, something that party says is key to earning its support.
Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet has given the government until Oct. 29 to green-light the pension bill, which is estimated to cost about $16 billion over five years.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 1, 2024.
SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Tim Walz and JD Vance will face off on the debate stage tonight in a matchup that both parties are hoping will demonstrate their vice-presidential candidate’s ability to connect with voters in battleground states that will play a critical role in deciding November’s election.
“They will both be trying to connect with those key Midwestern voters, that’s part of why each one of them was chosen,” said Matthew Lebo, a specialist in U.S. politics at Western University in London, Ont.
“Thinking about especially male voters in those key Midwestern swing states: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.”
Those states swung Republican when former president Donald Trump won the 2016 election, and in 2020 they helped put President Joe Biden in the White House.
Walz, the 60-year-old Democratic governor of Minnesota, has embraced his folksy, plain-spoken demeanour since he joined the ticket earlier this summer. He’s leaned into his Midwestern roots and the title “coach Walz” from his former football coach days.
The strategy has seen him garner high favourability in polls but he will be facing a formidable opponent in Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio.
The 40-year-old has become a mainstay on cable news shows since he was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate in July.
Formerly a Trump critic, Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 after becoming one of the former president’s loudest supporters.
Before entering the political sphere, Vance rose to fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
The Republican campaign released a video ahead of the debate to show Vance’s “hillbilly energy.” In the video, which features photos from his childhood, Vance talked about jobs disappearing from communities and the sense of hopelessness that left behind.
Both men are expected to play on their working-class narratives during the debate to give credibility to their party’s plans for the economy and inflation.
Political experts have said Vice-President Kamala Harris dominated the presidential debate last month by prodding Trump into tirades that strayed far from his intended goals of focusing on immigration and the economy.
Aaron Kall, the director of debate for the University of Michigan, said it’s unlikely Vance will fall for the same strategy, and he expects Tuesday night’s debate will lean more into policy.
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be barbs.
Walz was given credit for coining the label “weird” to describe his Republican opponents and the attack has stuck to Vance, with numerous viral videos and memes targeting the senator’s past comments and encounters with voters.
“They really couldn’t be more diametrically opposed, kind of like Harris and Trump,” Kall said.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of fireworks, given their personalities.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2024.
TORONTO – The Public Health Agency of Canada says it is not providing Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine this respiratory virus season, citing low demand.
It says the manufacturer requires a minimum order of its updated protein-based vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, which far exceeds the uptake by Canadians last year.
The agency says a very small portion of the doses ordered in 2023 were used and that its decision reflects efforts to limit vaccine wastage.
It is distributing two mRNA vaccines — made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — that are approved for adults and children six months and older.
Both COVID-19 vaccines have been reformulated to target the recently circulating KP.2 subvariant of Omicron.
Novavax’s vaccine, which was approved by Health Canada last month for adults and children 12 years and older, has been touted as an alternative to the mRNA vaccines.
The public health agency says provinces and territories have the option of ordering the vaccine — which has been updated to target the JN.1 subvariant of Omicron — directly from the company.
As of Tuesday afternoon, several provinces – including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and Newfoundland and Labrador – confirmed to The Canadian Press that they aren’t placing orders for Nuvaxovid.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said in an email that its contract with Novavax “only provides access to domestically manufactured vaccines, which Novavax has been unable to confirm for the 2024/25 season.”
The minimum order requirement was based on buying Novavax vaccines that were “internationally produced,” it said.
“Demand for Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine in Canada has been very low in previous years,” the public health agency said. “In 2023, 125,000 doses of the Novavax XBB.1.5 vaccine were ordered and available in Canada, of which only 5,529 doses were administered.”
In emails to The Canadian Press, Novavax confirmed that it produced its updated vaccine outside of Canada.
It said the company “significantly depends on its supply agreement with Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd,” but would not elaborate further.
—With files from Hannah Alberga in Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
