The federal government has announced a $1.1-billion plan to marshal Canada’s scientific community in the fight against the coronavirus, as some provinces with relatively fewer cases begin to weigh how they will relax restrictions put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Scientists around the globe are scrambling to come up with tests, treatments to lessen the severity of the disease and ultimately, a vaccine to protect against the coronavirus that has killed more than 2,000 Canadians and almost 200,000 people worldwide.
At his Thursday news conference outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government was putting in place a three-point medical and research strategy.
WATCH | Trudeau lays out the government’s strategy:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $1.1 billion strategy to fund COVID-19 medical research and a task force to study immunity. 3:53
This plan includes:
$155 million for research on vaccines and other treatments, support for clinical trials and expanding national testing and modelling.
$662 million for clinical trials led by Canada.
$350 million to expand national testing and modelling of COVID-19, including a COVID-19 immunity task force that includes Dr. David Naylor, Dr. Catherine Hankins, Dr. Tim Evans, Dr. Theresa Tam and Dr. Mona Nemer.
In mid-March, the Trudeau government committed $275 million for research, as part of the first emergency aid package.
That was supplemented later in the month with the creation of a new strategic innovation fund, which provided another $192 million to specific companies and research institutions working on the development of drugs and vaccines.
A laboratory technologist at LifeLabs demonstrates one of the steps taken when a specimen is tested for COVID-19 at the company’s lab in Surrey, B.C., on March 26. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
As well, the government has provided $52 million through national granting councils to almost 100 research teams across the country.
With several provinces beginning to talk cautiously about reopening the economy, which has been virtually shut down since mid-March, the pressure is on to find reliable, rapid tests to determine who is infected with the virus and who has developed immunity to it.
Saskatchewan’s reopening plan
Saskatchewan became the first province Thursday to outline a concrete plan for how some businesses and services could be allowed to resume next month provided the number of cases there stays low.
Premier Scott Moe said restrictions will be lifted May 4 for dentists’ offices, optometry clinics and physical therapy providers.
Golf courses will reopen May 15 and retail shops selling clothing, books, flowers and sporting goods might be allowed to open their doors on May 19.
A runner and walker keep their distance from each other on the Charlottetown boardwalk in late March. P.E.I. is among the provinces eyeing the relaxation of some COVID-19-related restrictions. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Hairdressers and barbers could also start seeing clients again on May 19, but employees working directly with the public would have to wear masks.
Physical distancing and strict cleanliness standards would have to be maintained through every phase.
For the next phases — for which there are no start dates yet — officials would consider lifting restrictions on indoor and outdoor recreational and entertainment facilities and bumping up the size of allowable gatherings to 30 people from the current 10.
The final phase of the plan would include lifting restrictions on crowd sizes, visits to long-term care facilities and non-essential travel. Moe has already said those will stay put for some time.
The government’s plan doesn’t provide a timeline for when gyms might be allowed to operate or when daycare capacity might be increased. Nor does it give a time frame for food services and restaurants to reopen, but when they do, they will be expected to operate at half their capacity.
Prince Edward Island, where the COVID-19 caseload is low, is aiming to ease measures put in place to slow the spread in late April and reopen businesses in mid-May.
‘Not exactly islands’
Dr. Craig Jenne, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Calgary, said easing restrictions in one province could present challenges for others.
“Many provinces in Canada have no hard borders,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba — we are not exactly islands where we can cut off travel between provinces.
“We are going to have to make sure we’re on the same page with this.”
‘Failing our parents, our grandparents’: Trudeau
Trudeau said the military will respond to provincial requests for assistance at long-term care facilities. But he said the measure is a short-term solution and that Canada should not need soldiers to take care of seniors.
“If you’re angry, frustrated, scared, you’re right to feel this way. We can do better. We need to do better. Because we are failing our parents, our grandparents, our elders.”
WATCH | Should long-term care homes be federally regulated?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with reporters on Thursday. 1:12
The comments today followed requests by Ontario and Quebec on Wednesday for hundreds of soldiers to help long-term care facilities that have been hit hard by COVID-19. The Canadian Armed Forces is now assessing what more it can provide to respond to these requests.
Trudeau said the government is sending the military to help in long-term care homes in Ontario and Quebec — 130 troops were sent to help five long-term care facilities in Quebec last week — but said it should never have come to this, and there are tough questions to be asked once the crisis is over.
The outbreak of COVID-19 in long-term care homes has outraged many Canadians and Trudeau said that outrage is not misplaced.
WATCH | Dr. Nathan Stall says there wasn’t enough attention paid to long-term care residences during pre-pandemic planning:
Dr. Nathan Stall, a geriatrician from Sinai Health System, says there wasn’t enough attention paid to long-term care residences during pre-pandemic planning. 1:16
During his daily briefing Thursday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose mother-in-law is in a long-term care home and has just tested positive for COVID-19, paused to gather himself before pledging to improve Ontario’s long-term care system.
“I recognize the system is broken,” he later said.
WATCH | Doug Ford’s full response:
His voice cracking, Ontario Premier Doug Ford vowed to ‘do better’ for the people in long-term care facilities. 1:27
Quebec resident Jonathan Marchand, who has muscular dystrophy, told CBC News that it’s not only the elderly who are vulnerable in those long-term care institutions.
“It’s not a safe environment,” he said. “What I want is to get out of here.”
WATCH | Quebec man talks about feeling unsafe in his long-term care home:
Quebec long-term care resident Jonathan Marchand, who has muscular dystrophy, says he wants the right to be cared for outside of an institution. 5:08
As of 7 p.m. ET Thursday, there were 2,232 COVID-19-related deaths in Canada, plus two reported COVID-19-linked deaths of Canadians abroad, according to a CBC News tally based on provincial and local health data, as well as CBC reporting.
There are 42,110 confirmed and presumptive cases, and 14,774 resolved cases among the provinces and territories that make such data public.
Here’s a look at what’s happening in Canada, the U.S. and around the world.
Here’s a look at what’s happening in the provinces and territories
WATCH | COVID-19 outbreak forces Alberta meat-processing plant to close:
A COVID-19 outbreak at the Cargill meat processing plant in High River, Alta., has forced the facility to temporarily close, raising concerns about beef prices and supply. 3:03
Ontario, environmental groups are raising concerns after the government changed its rules to allow it to approve some projects without public consultation. The provincial environment minister says the exemption is intended only for projects related to the pandemic that need to be built quickly, but the bulletin on the province’s website doesn’t specify that. Read about that issue here, and read more about what’s happening in Ontario here.
In Quebec, nurses in Montreal who have volunteered to work in a private long-term care home where more than half the residents have tested positive for COVID-19 say there is “shockingly little” protective gear available for employees. CHSLD Vigi Mont-Royal has more than 150 residents who have tested positive for the virus. Read more about the care home here, and read more about what’s happening in Quebec here.
New Brunswick officials warned the province is not in the clear, even though only 14 active cases remain there. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jennifer Russell said the province’s success has “given us a chance to get ready for what comes next,” but that physical distancing will be in place for “weeks and months ahead.” Premier Blaine Higgs said businesses should prepare to reopen, while also respecting physical-distancing measures. Read more about what’s happening in N.B.
Nova Scotia‘s four new COVID-19 deaths are all connected to long-term care homes. The province has also seen higher infection rates among women, who account for 59 per cent of cases. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Strang says it’s because more women live in long-term care homes and more women work in those facilities, too. Read more about what’s happening in Nova Scotia.
In the North, territorial health authorities are testing less than before, despite expanded criteria. Dr. Sarah Cook, the Northwest Territories’ territorial medical director, said that’s partly because other public health measures have been effective. Read more about what’s happening across the North.
Here’s a look at what’s happening in the U.S.
From The Associated Press and Reuters, updated at 7:30 p.m. ET
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a $484 billion US bill to expand federal loans to small businesses impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and hospitals overwhelmed by patients suffering from COVID-19.
By a vote of 388-5, the House passed the measure, which was unanimously approved on Tuesday by the Senate. It now goes to President Donald Trump for signing into law.
The House also approved a select committee, with subpoena power, to probe the U.S. response to the coronavirus. It will have broad powers to investigate U.S. preparedness, how federal dollars are being spent, and Trump administration deliberations.
Bronx Draft House manager Jonas Silva hands over a free meal to a first responder on April 23, 2020, in New York City. On Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a new study suggested 2.7 million residents across the state may already have antibodies for COVID-19. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
The figure brings the total number of newly jobless people in the United States in the past five weeks to more than 26 million. That’s more than the entire number of new jobs created in the U.S. economy since the financial crisis of 2008.
As of 9 p.m., there were more than 867,000 confirmed cases and nearly 50,000 deaths in the country, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.
On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a screening of 3,000 people in the state found nearly 14 per cent tested positive for antibodies for the coronavirus, suggesting that 2.7 million residents across New York may have been infected with the disease.
Cuomo noted that the survey was preliminary and had limitations, though at least initially indicated a fatality rate of about 0.5 per cent of confirmed cases, far lower than some experts feared.
Visitors to the Department of Labor are turned away at the door by personnel due to closures over coronavirus concerns, Wednesday, March 18, 2020, in New York. Applications for jobless benefits are surging in some states as coronavirus concerns shake the U.S. economy. The sharp increase comes as governments have ordered millions of workers, students and shoppers to stay home as a precaution against spreading the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) (John Minchillo/Associated Press)
Meanwhile, shares of American pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences fell more than four per cent Thursday, after the Financial Times reported its experimental coronavirus drug failed its first randomized clinical trial. The report cited draft documents published accidentally by the World Health Organization.
In a statement on Friday, Gilead said the post included inappropriate characterizations of the study and that the study was terminated early due to low enrolment and, as a result, it was underpowered to enable statistically meaningful conclusions.
Here’s what’s happening around the world
From The Associated Press and Reuters, updated at 7:30 p.m. ET
European Union leaders edged forward on Thursday toward joint financing of an economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic by agreeing to ask the European Commission to work out the details of such common support.
A pupil walks between distanced tables as she arrives for a test at a secondary school in Berlin on April 22. (Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images)
Still, a decision is likely months away as member countries disagree on how much financial aid should be given out.
Austria, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands all opposed recovery aid through grants, while a broader northern camp — including Germany — were in favour of linking a new Recovery Fund to the bloc’s next long-term budget for 2021-27, sources said.
Hard-hit Italy called for a Recovery Fund of 1.5 trillion euros ($2.3 trillion Cdn) as well as grants to member states, while French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe’s response required financial transfers to the hardest-hit states, and not just loans. Macron also said the European project had no future if member states failed to respond to the “exceptional shock.”
The World Health Organization said it would announce a “landmark collaboration” on Friday to speed development of safe, effective drugs, tests and vaccines to prevent, diagnose and treat COVID-19.
The Geneva-based agency, in a brief statement issued late on Thursday, said the initiative with partners aims to make technologies against the disease caused by the novel coronavirus “accessible to everyone who needs them, worldwide,” but gave no details.
With more than 22,000 officially recorded deaths, officials in Spain are now preparing for rolling back some of the strict lockdown restrictions. The confinement has helped slow the daily contagion rate increase from more than 20 per cent to less than two per cent, although Spain has not been testing widely and the real contagion is believed to be higher.
Health-care workers attend a coronavirus patient at the intensive care unit of the Principe de Asturias hospital in Alcala de Henares, near Madrid, on April 22. (Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP/Getty Images)
China says Australian calls for an independent investigation into the cause of the coronavirus outbreak are politically motivated and unhelpful in dealing with the global pandemic. Australia is among a number of countries and localities that are calling for more information from China about where the virus originated and whether all efforts were made to stop it spreading across China and then around the globe.
China also said on Thursday it would donate a further $30 million US to the World Health Organization, about a week after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that U.S. funding would be halted while Washington reviewed the WHO’s role “in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is planning to return to work as early as Monday after being hospitalized earlier this month with COVID-19, the Telegraph reported, even as the U.K. economy is crumbling under the strain of the coronavirus lockdown.
A business owner uses a thermal fogger as he disinfects trucks at a haulage firm in Barnsley, south Yorkshire, U.K., on April 22. (Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images)
North Korea has told the World Health Organization it tested 740 people for the new coronavirus as of April 17 but that all came out negative. That claim is being questioned by many outside experts.
South Korea‘s health authorities are planning to soon begin antibody tests to learn how widespread the coronavirus infection is within the population. They are also researching how long people maintain immunity after recovering from COVID-19.
South Africa‘s President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government will allow a partial reopening of the economy on May 1, with travel restrictions eased and some industries allowed to operate under a five-level risk system. International borders will remain closed while travel will be only allowed for essential services.
COVID-19 cases surged 43 per cent in the past week across Africa, reaching 26,000 according to the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The figures underscored a recent warning from the World Health Organization that the virus could kill more than 300,000 people in the continent and push 30 million into desperate poverty.
Ecuador’s health minister said on Thursday the country’s coronavirus case total was twice as high as previously confirmed, as authorities added 11,000 new infections that resulted from delayed testing. With 560 confirmed deaths, the outbreak has ravaged the economy of the oil-producing country and overwhelmed sanitary authorities in the largest city of Guayaquil, where corpses remained in homes or for hours on the streets.
VANCOUVER – A disciplinary investigation has found a former Vancouver police sergeant shared “disrespectful” commentary on a fellow officer’s court testimony about being sexually assaulted by a colleague.
The decision against Narinder Dosanjh, obtained by The Canadian Press, includes the running commentary on the woman’s testimony — apparently written by someone inside the courtroom — that calls her a “bad drunk” and says there was “no way” her case would be proved.
Former New Westminster police chief Dave Jansen, the external officer who rendered the decision against Dosanjh, says his assessment accounts for a culture of treating officers who testify against each other as “rats.”
Former Vancouver constable Jagraj Roger Berar was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting the woman, who can’t be identified because of a publication ban on her name.
Jansen says in his ruling, dated Oct. 11, that the comments in a Vancouver police group chat appear “supportive” of Berar and reflect “all-too-common myths” about women who make sexual assault allegations.
While Jansen found Dosanjh committed discreditable conduct by sharing the chats, a complaint against a more-senior Vancouver officer who was inside the courtroom, and who the victim and other officers believed wrote the commentary, were not substantiated.
The ruling says Jansen, who retired as New Westminster’s chief constable, would accept submissions before deciding how Dosanjh should be punished.
The woman who was assaulted was the complainant in the disciplinary investigation, and said in an interview she felt “vindicated” by Jansen’s decision because it “truly paints what I’ve been through,” after reporting a fellow officer for sexual assault.
She said many other women in municipal policing fear speaking out about ill-treatment at work, and some have told her about being assaulted and harassed but feared ruining their careers if they complained.
“This decision is important for those women to see,” she said. “It shows the tides are changing. Like, this is the first win I’ve had.”
A spokesman for the Surrey Police Service, where Dosanjh now works, did not immediately answer a question about how he was penalized, and said Dosanjh declined an interview request with The Canadian Press.
In his decision, Jansen said there was an “unfortunate but often pervasive” culture of treating officers who complain as “‘rats’, who betrayed their colleagues.”
“In terms of the messages themselves, Sergeant Dosanjh alleges that they are not degrading, humiliating or derogatory and do not attack the personal character of the complainant. I disagree,” Jansen wrote.
The decision includes a screenshot of the commentary about the complainant, who said the order of the messages appeared to refer to her evidence while she was being cross-examined and suggested the comments were written by someone listening to her testimony.
The commentary on a Vancouver police chat group on the Signal messaging app said the victim “wore a wire twice,” and “admitted in cross to possibly drinking way more alcohol than she originally claimed.”
“Her memory is super hazy and there’s no way you can prove beyond reasonable doubt,” the person wrote.
“And she admitted that she is really bad drunk,” they added.
Another message said it was a “nail in the coffin” of the case that video showed the complainant “cuddling, holding hands” with Berar.
The victim, who became aware of the commentary when a friend in the department showed them to her, was distressed by the messages and disputed their accuracy, said Jansen.
“The comments also appear to reflect some of the all-too-common myths around women making allegations of sexual assault. Some of these myths include the belief that because a victim socialized with the perpetrator, or engaged in some consensual activity with him, therefore she must have consented to the assault,” he wrote.
Jansen’s decision said Dosanjh shared the messages with a fellow officer after getting them from a “VPD chat group that he claims he knew little about, from a co-worker he claims not to be able to identify.”
The decision said other officers believed the commentary was written bya more-senior officer in the department who had been present at the trial, but Jansen said the discreditable conduct complaint against that person was unsubstantiated.
The decision said Dosanjh claimed he was the “fall guy” and “a pawn in a broader game.”
Jansen’s decision said Dosanjh was a senior officer and supervisor who was aware of the “vulnerability of victims of sexual crimes and of the myths that surround sexual assault victims.”
It said Dosanjh’s “distribution of these messages that were disrespectful of an alleged victim of sexual violence who was also a co-worker, should they become public, would likely discredit the reputation of the police force.”
The Vancouver Police Department did not immediately provide comment on Jansen’s decision.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
FREDERICTON – The offspring of beetles imported from British Columbia are ready to take up the fight against an invasive insect that is killing hemlock trees in Nova Scotia.
Last fall and spring, about 5,000 Laricobius nigrinus beetles — affectionately called Lari by scientists — made an overnight journey from the West Coast.
Lucas Roscoe, research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, says in the fight against the woolly adelgid that is destroying swaths of hemlock trees in Nova Scotia, the first step was to make sure the Lari beetle can survive a Nova Scotia winter.
The one-to-two-millimetre black flying beetles were released across six sites in Nova Scotia that had the woolly adelgids.
In one of the sites, scientists placed cages of imported beetles and about 60 per cent of them were able to survive the winter in Nova Scotia, which Roscoe says is an encouraging rate.
He says the woolly adelgid was first seen in southwestern Nova Scotia in 2017 and the peppercorn-sized insect, aided by climate change, has since spread north.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
Dozens of researchers across Canada, including renowned environmentalist David Suzuki, have joined a growing chorus of voices urging the federal government to halt the importation of an endangered monkey species for medical research in Quebec.
A letter signed by 80 scientists, academics, doctors and students says testing on long-tailed macaques from Cambodia should be banned due to ethical concerns and potential public-health risks.
“A decade ago, chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives, ceased to be used for experimentation because using such animal ‘models’ could no longer be justified from scientific, ethical, and/or financial perspectives,” says the letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his environment minister and the premier of Quebec.
The researchers say they are also concerned about “the serious risks of transmission of zoonotic pathogens” that could be associated with transporting macaques.
Their letter urges the federal government to end charter flights that have been bringing the macaques into Canada, and to adopt regulations banning the importation of all primates for biomedical testing.
It’s the latest group to add more pressure on Ottawa to suspend the monkey imports by Charles River Laboratories, a U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant that has a sprawling facility in Montreal.
The company announced in 2023 that it was halting macaque imports into the U.S., after it was subpoenaed in a case that involved the indictment of two senior Cambodian officials over what authorities described as “multiple felonies for their role in bringing wild long-tailed macaques into the United States.”
No charges have been brought against Charles River Laboratories, or any of its officials, and the company has said it will fully co-operate with the U.S. investigation.
At around the same time, imports of monkeys from Cambodia into Canada dramatically surged, with Statistics Canada data showing a 500 per cent increase in 2023 from the year before.
Environment and Climate Change Canada, the federal department responsible for monitoring commercial trade in wildlife, confirmed to the Canadian Press that Charles River Laboratories has imported 6,769 long-tailed macaques into the country between January 2023 and August of this year. The monetary value of these imported macaques is around $120 million dollars, according to Statistics Canada.
The department previously said that officials rigorously and closely inspect imports of foreign animals, including those brought in by Charles River Laboratories, and that all macaque imports so far this year have complied with federal and international wildlife regulations.
The government and the company have both said that no Canadian laws have been broken.
Last month, the Canadian Transportation Authority issued a permit for another shipment on a cargo plane chartered by Charles River Laboratories. A flight tracker shows that a plane with the same flight number as what is shown on the permit departed Phnom Penh, Cambodia last Thursday, and arrived in Montreal on Friday.
Jesse Greener, a professor of chemistry at Laval University who signed the researchers’ letter to the government, said medical technology has developed to a point that makes it unjustifiable for the pharmaceutical industry to continue using live primates for testing.
“The government should take a leadership role and help researchers and surely the private sector to pivot from using these unethical, and I would say old and outdated and unreliable animal models, and embrace these much more efficient and ethical approaches that are … exploding right now,” said Greener, who has done research on methods to replace animals in such experiments.
“It is grotesque,” he said of the animal use. “It is time that we change the page on this chapter of terrible research and commercial activities.”
Canada banned the use of animals for cosmetic testing last year, but it is still legal to use live primates for drug testing purposes.
The federal government said a draft strategy aimed at reducing and replacing the use of animals in drug testing was published in September and open to public consultations for 60 days.
The strategy, which will be revised based on input from researchers, experts and others, is expected to be published in June 2025, it said.
“The government of Canada is committed to advancing efforts to replace, reduce, or refine the use of vertebrate animals in toxicity testing where possible,” Environment and Climate Change Canada said in a statement Tuesday.
Charles River Laboratories previously told The Canadian Press that while it is also committed to reducing its use of live primates, global regulatory bodies require drugs to be tested on animals before they are evaluated in humans.
The company said the use of non-human primates has been vital in developing treatments for various diseases and that the standards it applies in its facilities are exceeding global norms.
Matthew Green, a New Democrat MP who had previously called on the federal government to halt the latest shipment of macaques, said he has “great concern” about importing this exotic animal.
“Generally in Canada, Canadians like to believe that our government has higher regulations and more stringent enforcement protocols when it comes to protecting endangered species, yet this is not the case in comparison to what the United States has done,” he said.
Green and two of his NDP colleagues wrote a letter to three federal ministers last month, demanding an “immediate attention” to the issue.
The Animal Alliance of Canada also sent a letter to the environment minister in August, urging the immediate suspension of monkey importation from Cambodia.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
