As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into a third year, many experts are expressing cautious optimism that Canada has passed the need for lockdowns and the widespread safety protocols that marked much of the last 24 months.
But after two years of dealing with an unpredictable virus, they also say we should be ready to adapt at any moment.
While hospitalizations and other pandemic markers appear to have dipped or stabilized throughout the country, virologist Jason Kindrachuk says the COVID-19 crisis can’t be considered over until it subsides across the globe.
“The history of COVID-19 tells us we should be preparing for the potential of another variant of concern…. Let’s at least be appreciative that we’ve been in this situation before,” says Kindrachuk, an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba.
“None of us want to take a step forward and end up having to take five or 10 steps backwards because we get hit with what comes next.”
Jurisdictions began lifting public health measures over the last month, axing gathering limits, vaccine passports and mask mandates.
Ontario’s masking policy is set to end in most indoor places on March 21- two years to the day that the U.S.-Canada border closed to non-essential travel as the original SARS-CoV-2 strain spread.
Several pandemic anniversaries are at hand this week as many Canadians reflect on the events from March 2020 that changed the perception of the virus from a faraway unknown into a real threat in North America.
COVID-19’s arrival here ushered in a transformative period punctuated by stay-at-home orders and social distancing, and the virus’s far-reaching impacts in the two years since have gone well beyond the nearly 40,000 deaths nationwide – a figure some experts say is likely much higher.
The World Health Organization declared the global pandemic on March 11, 2020, the same day the NBA shut down its season after a player tested positive. Ontario and Alberta declared states of emergencies on March 17, while British Columbia and Saskatchewan followed the next day.
Since then, scientific advancements have ushered in numerous COVID-19 vaccines and therapies to limit strain on health-care systems, giving many experts the confidence to suggest future lockdowns can likely be avoided.
A new variant could dwarf progress, but experts say it would likely require significant mutations to the virus to prompt a return of the more stringent March 2020 measures.
Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist with the University of Ottawa, is buoyed by how current vaccines have offered exceptional protection against severe disease even as the virus has changed – at least up to its current form.
“This is no longer a crisis of the virus having us at its mercy,” Deonadan says. “We have the tools to live a normal life … but it’s a matter of spending the right money and having the political will to enact those tools accordingly.”
Deonandan says new variants will arise “absolutely” as transmission continues in the developing world where vaccines are scarce.
“Will those variants be troubling? We don’t know,” he adds. “But we have vaccine platforms that can produce new formulations very, very quickly.”
Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious disease expert with Hamilton’s McMaster University, says that while science has evolved at an “incredible” pace since 2020, the rapidity with which the Delta and Omicron waves took hold means creating variant-specific jabs in time could prove difficult.
He says other vaccine technologies are underway, however, including efforts to create a pan-coronavirus injection that could protect against the current strain and whatever comes next.
“The next generation of COVID vaccines in a year or two may be very different … and may complement our current vaccines by helping prevent infection and be more stable against variations of this virus,” Chagla says.
As restrictions lift across Canada, messages from public health and political leaders have switched in emphasis, from containing the virus to learning to live with it.
That shift has been controversial, with some speculating that political pressure – not science – is dictating how quickly certain jurisdictions scrap measures.
Experts acknowledge that many Canadians want to return to pre-pandemic lifestyles, but they stress that learning to live with COVID-19 as it shifts from a pandemic to endemic phase doesn’t mean the virus is gone.
Deonandan notes that endemic diseases like chickenpox and measles continue to circulate at low levels. And vulnerable people remain at risk.
“In an ideal scenario, the way living with COVID would look is … extremely low levels of endemicity with outbreaks happening that are not a threat to society, the hospital system or to most individuals,” he says, adding that COVID-19 remains dangerous to large segments of the population, including older individuals and the immunocompromised
Kindrachuk says systems need to be in place to ensure the vulnerable don’t get left behind as society drops precautions.
That means governments and policy-makers must be able to pivot quickly and reintroduce measures like masking mandates if needed.
“A critical part of learning to live with the virus is continuing to learn about the virus itself and adopting recommendations and protocols around that information,” Kindrachuk says.
“We aren’t at the point yet where this virus has become endemic.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
