The coronavirus pandemic, once concentrated in older adults in Quebec and Ontario, is moving west and appearing in younger groups.
On April 15, Quebec and Ontario accounted for nearly 84 per cent of new daily cases. On Aug. 15, 23 per cent of new cases were in B.C. and another 23 per cent in Alberta. Ontario and Quebec had 24 and 18 per cent respectively.
This is representative of a new trend: While new daily case numbers in central Canada seemed to have generally stabilized recently, Western Canada’s keep growing.
Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alberta, said “it doesn’t really look like it’s slowing at this point,” in her province.
“I think it’s too soon to say that this appears to be the start of the second wave in British Columbia or Alberta,” said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital. But, he thinks it’s cause for concern.
In Alberta, much of the outbreak appears to be focused on Edmonton, which accounts for more than half of the active cases in the province. Edmonton now has more than twice as many active COVID-19 cases than Toronto – 636 as of Aug. 17.
In B.C., which was very recently thought of as a success story, Fraser Health Region has had the most new cases recently. The health region covers Surrey, Delta, Abbotsford and Burnaby.
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To Bogoch, the main culprit is young people.
“It’s 20-year-olds,” he said. “We’ve seen this tremendous shift from having a large number of cases in long-term care facilities to people in their 20s who are getting this infection either through social gatherings, or perhaps through other mechanisms – for example at work.”
2:01 Young COVID-19 survivor shares cautionary tale
Young COVID-19 survivor shares cautionary tale
On Friday, the Public Health Agency of Canada released data showing that since early July, the highest incidence of COVID-19 across Canada has been reported among people aged 20-39.
Stephen Hoption Cann, a professor of population and public health at the University of British Columbia, said that private indoor gatherings are a major driver of B.C.’s spread. “Obviously they’ve been trying to keep the message out, that people need to social distance. I think a lot of people just aren’t listening to that,” he said.
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“People have arranged private parties and things like that where they’re going beyond their social bubble.”
Saxinger agrees that social bubbles seem to have expanded lately.
“It really reads to me, in summary, like more people are in contact with more people and that the infection never has gone away,” she said. “And as soon as we start seeing more people contacting more people, we see cases go up.”
2:00 Edmonton on COVID-19 provincial watch list
Edmonton on COVID-19 provincial watch list
While hospitalizations are low in Alberta for now, she worries that in a few weeks, they will start to go up again. Typically, hospitalizations lag cases by two to four weeks, she said. Younger people are less likely to have severe illness, but they can spread it on to other more vulnerable people.
Many recent cases across Canada have been linked to public places. A recent Global News investigation, using data compiled by the Institute of Investigative Journalism (IIJ) at Concordia University, found that 505 cases between July 4 and Aug. 11 were linked to places like restaurants, bars and retail stores.
This data is likely incomplete though, as the federal government does not provide detailed statistics on where people got infected. B.C. regularly issues alerts to people though, of possible exposures, and they tend to name restaurants, clubs and airplanes as culprits.
Saxinger thinks that while there have been outbreaks linked to specific events – like one recently at an Edmonton church – there are still a lot of unexplained cases in Alberta where investigators aren’t sure where someone got the virus.
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This is trickier for public health authorities to track and contain, and indicates that the virus could be widespread in the community, she said.
Saxinger expects cases in Alberta to continue to rise, in contrast to much of the pandemic, where they were relatively low. “The fact that cases in Alberta were low for a long time might play into it,” she said. “I think having the infection seem to be out of sight, out of mind, might be playing a role in changes in behaviour.”
When people don’t see the threat or aren’t continually reminded of the danger, she explained, they tend to slowly go back to their old ways of life.
Part of the solution has to be more effective public health messaging to reach young adults, Bogoch said.
One strategy could be a harm-reduction approach. “I think it’s unrealistic to think that we can prevent people in their 20s from getting together in social gatherings,” he said.
So, you try to mitigate the harm. “A harm reduction approach is ensuring that that happens in the safest way possible,” he said, which could include emphasizing outdoor gatherings in smaller groups, which would have a lesser risk of transmitting the disease.
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2:08 “It’s not worth it”: COVID-19 survivor warns young partiers to stop ignoring rules
“It’s not worth it”: COVID-19 survivor warns young partiers to stop ignoring rules
Saxinger thinks there is one big takeaway from Western Canada’s recent experience with the virus:
“If you give it an inch, it takes a mile.”
— With files from Max Hartshorn, David Lao, Andrew Russell and Kerri Breen, Global News
Nova Scotia RCMP say their investigation into two suspicious deaths earlier this month has concluded that one man died by homicide and the other by suicide.
The bodies of two men, aged 40 and 73, were found in a home in Windsor, N.S., on Sept. 3.
Police say the province’s medical examiner determined the 40-year-old man was killed and the 73-year-old man killed himself.
They say the two men were members of the same family.
No arrests or charges are anticipated, and the names of the deceased will not be released.
RCMP say they will not be releasing any further details out of respect for the family.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from its original location because members were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
Nemaska’s story illustrates the challenges Legault’s government faces as it looks to build new dams to meet the province’s power needs, which are anticipated to double by 2050. Legault has promised that any new projects will be developed in partnership with Indigenous people and have “social acceptability,” but experts say that’s easier said than done.
François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said the earlier era of hydro projects were developed without any consideration for the Indigenous inhabitants living nearby.
“We live in a much different world now,” he said. “Any kind of hydro development, no matter where in Quebec, will require true consent and partnership from Indigenous communities.” Those groups likely want to be treated as stakeholders, he added.
Securing wider social acceptability for projects that significantly change the landscape — as hydro dams often do — is also “a big ask,” he said. The government, Bouchard added, will likely focus on boosting capacity in its existing dams, or building installations that run off river flow and don’t require flooding large swaths of land to create reservoirs.
Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, said Legault’s visit to Nemaska represents a desire for reconciliation with Indigenous people who were traumatized by the way earlier projects were carried about.
Any new projects will need the consent of local First Nations, Beaumier said, adding that its easier to get their blessing for wind power projects compared to dams, because they’re less destructive to the environment and easier around which to structure a partnership agreement.
Beaumier added that he believes it will be nearly impossible to get the public — Indigenous or not — to agree to “the destruction of a river” for a new dam, noting that in recent decades people have come to recognize rivers as the “unique, irreplaceable riches” that they are.
Legault’s visit to northern Quebec came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
The book, published in 2022 along with Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Nemaska community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault was in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro complex in honour of former premier Bernard Landry. At the event, Legault said he would follow the example of his late predecessor, who oversaw the signing of the historic “Paix des Braves” agreement between the Quebec government and the Cree in 2002.
He said there is “significant potential” in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, both in increasing the capacity of its large dams and in developing wind power projects.
“Obviously, we will do that with the Cree,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
