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Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Tuesday – CBC.ca

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The latest:

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte urged citizens on Tuesday to continue to respect a nighttime curfew intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus despite a court ruling that found it lacked legal foundation.

In a televised press conference called after the Hague Court ordered an end to the curfew, which has been in place since January, Rutte said his government would appeal the ruling and that the measure was needed in any case.

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The court order deals a blow to the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, as it has repeatedly said the measure was needed to prevent a surge of new infections due to more contagious new mutations of the virus.

But the court sided with an anti-lockdown group’s request that it be scrapped, finding that the government had failed to make clear why it was absolutely necessary to use emergency powers at this stage of the pandemic, as the infection rate was already dropping when the measure went into effect.

The curfew, which allows only people with a pressing need to be outdoors between 9 p.m. and 4:30 a.m., was extended last week until at least March 3.

“The curfew is based on a law for emergency situations, where there is no time for debate with parliament,” the court in The Hague said.

“There was no such pressing need in this case. Far-reaching measures such as these need to be based on proper laws.”

The curfew is the first in the Netherlands since the Second World War.

A firefighter extinguishes a container in Rotterdam, Netherlands, that was set alight during protests in late January against a nationwide curfew. (Peter Dejong/The Associated Press)

A spokesperson for the Justice Ministry said it would need to study the ruling and declined further comment.

Police trade union NPB said the verdict raised questions, such as over the validity of the almost 15,000 fines handed out to people who had ignored the curfew in the past two weeks.

“But we abide by court rulings,” NPB chair Jan Struijs told news agency ANP. “We can’t ignore it.”

A group called Virus Truth that is deeply skeptical of the government’s approach to slowing the spread of the virus had asked the court to outlaw the curfew, which sparked rioting in the first days of its imposition but is widely adhered to by the vast majority of the country.

The curfew is part of a lockdown in which bars, restaurants and non-essential stores have been closed for months.

The number of coronavirus infections in the Netherlands has stabilized in recent weeks, after a steady decline this year.

The total number of confirmed infections since the start of the pandemic surpassed one million last week, with almost 15,000 registered COVID-19 deaths.

-From Reuters and The Associated Press, last updated at 8:45 a.m. ET.


What’s happening across Canada

WATCH | COVID-19 outbreak puts strain on Newfoundland health care:

Hundreds of front-line workers in Newfoundland are in self isolation and it’s adding to the strain on the health-care system caused by a COVID-19 variant outbreak, which is now impacting every public health region on the island. 1:58

As of early Tuesday morning, Canada had reported 826,929 cases of COVID-19, with 35,684 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 21,311.

Newfoundland and Labrador reported seven confirmed new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, with all but one of them in the province’s eastern region. Health officials also reported 21 presumptive cases and one hospitalization.

“You see enough cases, you’re gonna see hospitalizations. That is the sad fact of the matter,” said Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald urged people to follow public health guidance and cautioned that she expects “more cases in the days and weeks ahead.”

Health officials have identified more unlinked chains of transmission, she said, meaning that “COVID is among us and we need to be vigilant.” The province is increasing its testing and contact tracing capacity, Fitzgerald said.

Across Atlantic Canada, both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick reported one new case of COVID-19 on Monday. There were no new cases reported in Prince Edward Island.

In Quebec, health officials reported 728 new cases of COVID-19 and 16 additional deaths on Monday. Hospitalizations stood at 804, with 136 COVID-19 patients in the province’s intensive care units.

Students in Toronto, as well as Peel and York Regions, in Ontario were slated to return to in-person learning on Tuesday after a period of remote learning, but winter weather prompted school closures in two of those boards. The province did not provide updated case numbers on Monday because of the Family Day holiday, but is expected to resume its updates Tuesday morning.

Manitoba also did not report updated figures on the holiday Monday.

In Saskatchewan, the province reported 143 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. In neighbouring Alberta, health officials reported 251 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths on Monday.

In British Columbia, there was no update from health officials on the holiday Monday.

Across the North, seven new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Monday in Arviat, a community in Nunavut. There were no new cases reported in the Northwest Territories. In Yukon, a probable case of COVID-19 that was reported last week was confirmed on Monday, health officials said.

WATCH | Reopen Ontario very carefully to avoid another lockdown, expert advises:

Loosen restrictions and reopen schools very carefully in Ontario to avoid an unnecessary lockdown, says infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch. 2:45

Here’s a look at what’s happening across the country:

-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 7:45 a.m. ET 


What’s happening around the world 

A health worker shows a photo of her vaccination at Ricardo Palma clinic in Lima, Peru on Monday. The clinic received a batch of Sinopharm vaccines in order to vaccinate health workers as part Peru’s vaccination campaign against the coronavirus. (Raul Sifuentes/Getty Images)

As of early Tuesday morning, more than 109.2 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with more than 61.4 million of those cases listed as recovered or resolved on a tracking site maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 2.4 million.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Australia’s regulator on Tuesday approved the AstraZeneca vaccine as its second for use against the coronavirus. Pfizer’s product will be available in Australia next week. It will be given in two doses three weeks apart, while AstraZeneca’s will be administered in two doses 12 weeks apart.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the regulator, found the AstraZeneca vaccine was safe and effective. Health Minister Greg Hunt said the AstraZeneca vaccine will prevent serious COVID-19 illness.

Morrison will be vaccinated with the Pfizer product and Hunt with AstraZeneca in a demonstration of confidence in both vaccines.

Australia has procured 53.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and 50 million of those will be manufactured in Australia. The government has also secured 20 million Pfizer vaccines for a population of 26 million.

A medical worker stands inside the coronavirus vaccination centre at the Nair Hospital in Mumbai on Tuesday. (Punit Paranjpe/AFP/Getty Images)

India has detected four cases of the strain of the virus first identified in South Africa, a top government official said on Tuesday. The country has also detected the strain of the virus first identified in Brazil, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general Balram Bhargava said.

In Africa, South Africa plans to share the one million AstraZeneca vaccine doses it received from the Serum Institute of India with other African countries via the African Union, a senior health official said on Tuesday. The country paused the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine this month, after preliminary trial data showed it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the country’s dominant coronavirus variant.

It plans to start inoculating health-care workers with Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine as soon as this week in a research study.

In the Americas, Mexico began the task of vaccinating millions of senior citizens, with dozens of Mexicans aged over 60 years waiting in line for hours because of delays in administering shots.

Colombia will begin vaccinations on Wednesday following the arrival of its first vaccines, which are from Pfizer.

Coronavirus case numbers are stabilizing in parts of the Middle East but the situation remains critical, with more than a dozen countries reporting cases of new variants, the World Health Organization said Monday.

Ahmed al-Mandhari, director of WHO’s eastern Mediterranean region, which comprises most of the Middle East, said in a press briefing from Cairo that at least one of the three new coronavirus variants was reported in the 13 countries in the region. He did not name the countries. All three of the new variants are more contagious, according to WHO.

A woman flashes a victory sign as she receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine during a nationwide vaccination campaign at the Saint George Hospital in Beirut on Tuesday. (Hussein Malla/The Associated Press)

Al-Mandhari said there are nearly six million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the region and about 140,000 deaths. WHO urged people to continue taking precautionary measures against the virus.

The organization said 6.3 million vaccinations have been administered in 12 countries in the eastern Mediterranean.

“Vaccinations are a turning point in facing the virus but the vaccines alone are not enough,” al-Mandhari said, noting that physical distancing, wearing masks and keeping clean remain the main ways to fight the spread of the virus.

He said as many people as possible should be vaccinated before they come into contact with any of the new variants of the virus.

WATCH | The challenges, criticisms and success of Israel’s record-setting vaccine rollout:

Israel is leading the world with its COVID-19 vaccine rollout and it’s already seeing results, but the campaign has been met with some hesitant demographics and criticism for not vaccinating Palestinians. 6:05

Al-Mandhari said 37,000 coronavirus vaccine doses from the global COVAX initiative will arrive in the Palestinian territories and 94,000 should arrive in Tunisia in the coming weeks. The program seeks to provide vaccines to developing nations.

Al-Mandhari said overall the number of new coronavirus cases in the region has stabilized, despite increases in some Gulf nations and Lebanon.

Lebanon has been one of the hardest-hit countries in the region in recent weeks with hospitals working at near maximum capacity amid a nationwide lockdown. Lebanon began a vaccination campaign Sunday.

A nation of six million people including a million Syrian refugees, Lebanon has confirmed nearly 340,000 cases.

Iran remains the eastern Mediterranean country with the highest number of confirmed cases at about 1.5 million.

In Europe, Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said the coronavirus variant first reported in Britain represents nearly half of analyzed cases in the country during the second week of February.

Heunicke posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday that he understands the growing need to reopen the country, but “we need to follow the plan of gradual steps so that we maintain epidemic control.”

Earlier this month, Danish schools resumed in-class teaching of kids from preschool to the fourth grade amid a steady decrease of COVID-19 infections. Denmark in December extended restrictions that shuttered all shops except food stores and pharmacies and put a ban on public gatherings of more than five people.

A shipment of a COVID-19 vaccine produced in China arrived in Hungary on Tuesday morning, making the country the first in the European Union to receive a Chinese vaccine. A jet carrying 550,000 doses of the vaccine, developed by the Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm, landed in Budapest after flying from Beijing.

The shipment is enough to treat 275,000 people with the two-dose vaccine, head of the Epidemiology Department of the National Public Health Center, Dr. Agnes Galgoczy, said at a press conference.

Hungary expects to receive five million total doses of the Sinopharm vaccine over the next four months. The country has sought to purchase vaccines from countries outside the EU’s common procurement program, claiming that delays in the bloc’s rollout is costing lives.

The Sinopharm vaccine, which the developer says is nearly 80 per cent effective, is already in use in Hungary’s non-EU neighbour Serbia, where around half a million ethnic Hungarians have already received the jab.

Hungary has also agreed to purchase two million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, which hospitals began administering in Budapest last week.

-From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 8:45 a.m. ET

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Child care in Canada: Trudeau unveils new help for providers – CTV News

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The federal government is launching a new loan program to help child-care providers in Canada expand their spaces, and will be extending further student loan forgiveness and training options for early childhood educators, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.

The prime minister unveiled a trio of child-care-centric commitments that will be included in the upcoming federal budget, with the aim of opening up more $10-a-day child-care spaces across the country, as the Liberals continue to work towards creating 250,000 new spaces by March 2026.

Specifically, the Liberals are vowing to offer $1 billion in low-cost loans and $60 million in non-repayable grants to public and not-for-profit child-care providers, so they can build or renovate their care centres. 

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This funding will be administered through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMCH), which Trudeau called “a common sense approach that will help child care be developed alongside housing.”

An additional $48 million is being earmarked for the next four years to extend student loan forgiveness — similar to the program offered to rural doctors and nurses — to early childhood educators, in an effort to incentivize more teachers to work in smaller communities. 

The federal government is also promising $10 million over the next two years to train more early childhood educators.

The prime minister, speaking in Surrey, B.C., alongside the minister currently leading the file, Jenna Sudds, touted the bilateral child-care agreements in effect across the country for seeing thousands of children placed in affordable spaces.

However, in recent months Canadian parents and care providers have sounded alarms about increasingly long daycare waitlists. And, operators in some provinces have threatened to withdraw from the lower-cost program because they’re struggling to make ends meet. 

Trudeau said while the government has funded 100,000 spaces so far and is aware of the challenges in rolling out this new national program, not enough families have access and not all provinces are moving as fast as they should. 

“I want to take a moment to talk to young moms, many of you millennials. You’ve grown up with so many pressures in this economy, the 2008 recession, COVID, climate change … and we want to make sure that everyone — especially moms raising kids — has the best chance to succeed and thrive,” Trudeau said.

“As Canada grows, as families grow, we want to make sure more kids can access high-quality child care… That’s what fairness for every generation is all about.”

The prime minister also got political, accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of opposing the program, despite the Official Opposition voting in support of a recently passed Liberal piece of legislation meant to enshrine in law a commitment to the Canada-wide early learning and child-care system, and the long-term funding needed to maintain it. 

Reacting to the news, NDP MP and critic for children, families, and social development Leah Gazan said the announcement was a “direct result of advocacy” by her party, care workers, unions, and women’s organizations.

She also pointed the finger at the Conservatives, accusing them of trying to stall the program and push for a “for-profit private system that parents can’t afford.” 

Liberal pre-budget strategy

Similar to how Wednesday’s rollout of renter-fairness-focused pre-budget news went, cabinet ministers are making echo announcements of the new child-care affordability measures across the country Thursday afternoon. 

This is all part of a new communications strategy the Liberals are employing in the lead up to the release of the April 16 federal budget.

Practically every day between now and when Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland releases the massive economic document, the Liberals are expected to tease out bits and pieces of the budget.

In an effort to stretch out their ability to market the measures within it, Trudeau as well as members of his cabinet will unveil new initiatives over the next two weeks, to the point that the vast majority of the budget will be public prior to budget day.

Traditionally, governments have held budget news — save for some pre-tabling leaks — for the day the document is tabled in the House of Commons post-daylong reporter and stakeholder lockup.

Kicking off this strategy on Wednesday, Trudeau issued a video across social media platforms indicating the overall theme for the 2024 budget will be “generational fairness,” a message meant to speak to millennials and Generation Z.

“When I first decided to run for office, one of my biggest motivations was working to create a Canada that young people saw themselves… As prime minister, I’ve never lost sight of that,” Trudeau said in the clip.

“You as a young Canadian are the heartbeat of our economy. You power our growth and you deserve an economy that gives you a fair shot at success. But, this moment we’re all living in is throwing big challenges your way… So we’re going to roll up our sleeves and work like hell. And we’re going to tell you about what we’re doing to fix it, over the next two weeks.”

While Trudeau’s 2015 election victory was credited in part to a historic surge in young people turning up at the polls, Poilievre has been chipping away at that Liberal voting bloc of those aged 43 and under, seeking to appeal to their current struggles to get ahead with his “powerful paycheques” and housing affordability arguments.

In November 2023, Trudeau tapped Max Valiquette, a marketing guru with self-described expertise in understanding younger generations, as his new executive director of communications.

“We’re witnessing a different communication strategy from the government. They’re implementing something they’ve not tried before. We’re not going to have a budget day on April 16. We’re going to have budget days between now and April 16,” said political commentator Scott Reid in an interview on CTV News Channel.

“Frankly, this government knows that it needs to break through, it knows that it needs to connect with Canadians… Is it going to turn around the polls overnight? No. Might they get a little bit more of a hearing than they otherwise would have been? Probably.” 

With files from CTV News’ Vassy Kapelos and Annie Bergeron-Oliver

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Ontario releases 2023 Sunshine List, top earner made $1.9M – CBC.ca

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Five employees at Ontario Power Generation are in the top 10 earners on the province’s so-called sunshine list for 2023, with the province’s highest salary nearing $2 million.

The annual sunshine list documents public sector employees with salaries over $100,000. In this year’s edition, there are 300,570 names, more than 30,000 higher than last year.

Kenneth Hartwick, CEO of the electricity Crown corporation, is in the top spot again with a salary of $1.93 million.

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Two other executives at the organization — chief strategy officer Dominique Miniere and chief projects officer Michael Martelli — made nearly $1.2 million and nearly $1 million, respectively.

You can find a list of the top 100 earners below.

The presidents and CEOs of the Hospital for Sick Children and the University Health Network are also in the top 10, earning around $850,000 each. So is Phil Verster, who is president and CEO of the provincial transit agency, Metrolinx, with a $838,097 salary.

Caroline Mulroney, president of the Treasury Board, highlighted other high growth areas in a release.

“The largest year-over-year increases were in the hospitals, municipalities and services, and post-secondary sectors, which together represented approximately 80 per cent of the growth of the list,” she said.

The list shows 17 professors or associate professors at the University of Toronto had earnings of $500,000 or more.

A statement from a University of Toronto spokesperson said the school competes with top universities and private-sector employers around the world for faculty members.

“This occasionally results in salaries above the usual range for a small number of faculty members.”

An Ontario Power Generation building.
Five employees at Ontario Power Generation are among the top 10 spots of the annual sunshine list for 2023. (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press)

Premier Doug Ford earned $208,974 last year. His chief of staff, Patrick Sackville, earned $324,675.

Matthew Anderson, CEO of Ontario Health, a provincial agency the Ford government created in 2019, earned $821,000. Meanwhile the public servant leading the Ministry of Health, deputy minister Catherine Zahn, earned $477,360, and Health Minister Sylvia Jones, $165,851.

There are more than 25,000 registered nurses on the list, including seven who earned more than $300,000 last year.

Chief Justice Sharon Nicklas, who was appointed to the top post in the province’s judiciary last May, earned $388,960.

The police chiefs of Thunder Bay, Daniel Taddeo, ($376,428) and Hamilton, Francis Bergen, ($374,492) were paid more last year than OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique ($373,472). Taddeo retired in April 2023. 

Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw, who took over the post in late 2022, earned $353,411. 

Organizations that receive provincial government funding are also required to disclose salaries for the sunshine list, so it includes top earners at some registered charities.

The chief executive of the True Patriot Love Foundation, Nicholas Booth, earned $421,149. The foundation funds support programs for veterans and military families. 

The president and CEO of the Canadian Red Cross Society, Conrad Sauve, earned $412,970, while the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s chief executive, Medhat Mahdy, earned $394,057.

Salaries of other key Ontario public figures include:

  • $826,539 for Ontario Pension Board CEO Mark Fuller.
  • $709,581 for Ontario Lottery and Gaming Association president & CEO Alfred Hannay.
  • $601,376 for Registered Nurses Association of Ontario CEO Doris Grinspun.
  • $596,392 for Dean of Ivey Business School, Western University, Sharon Hodgson.
  • $563,291 for LCBO president & CEO George Soleas.
  • $546,053 for Dean of the Faculty of Health Science, Queen’s University, Jane Philpott.
  • $533,112 for Royal Ontario Museum president & CEO Joshua Basseches.
  • $486,192 for University of Toronto president Meric Gertler.
  • $464,148 for Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore.
  • $455,091 for Chief Coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer.
  • $404,003 Art Gallery of Ontario director and CEO Stephan Jost.
  • $395,974 for former auditor general Bonnie Lysyk.

Adjusting sunshine list threshold

The sunshine list has been around for almost 30 years, always set at six figures and up. 

At Queen’s Park on Thursday, some members of provincial Parliament faced questions on whether the $100,000 starting point should be adjusted.

Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner said it should be pegged to the rate of inflation, but others disagreed.

“I think that people think that $100,000 is still a lot of money, especially in an affordability crisis,” said NDP MPP Catherine Fife, who’s also the finance critic.

Government House Leader Paul Calandra said the government has no plans at this time to change the threshold on the sunshine list.

“I think it’s an important document that serves the people well in highlighting the salaries of our public employees.”

The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, enacted by former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris in 1996, compels organizations that receive public funding from the province to report the names, positions and pay of people who make more than $100,000.

The interactive chart below shows the top 100 earners on the list, based on both salary and benefits.

Search the complete Sunshine List for yourself here.

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1 dead, 2 critically injured after car crash in Montreal

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Montreal

Three people are in hospital with critical injuries after their vehicle crashed into a tree. Police believe they might be connected to two drive-by shootings that took place early Thursday morning.

2 drive-by shootings also took place overnight

an SPVM car near a taped-off crime scene
Montreal police are investigating a car crash possibly linked to two drive-by shootings. (Mathieu Wagner/Radio-Canada)

Urgences-santé say one person died and two others were critically injured after their vehicle hit a tree in the Rosemont neighbourhood.

Montreal police believe the crash may be linked to two drive-by shootings early Thursday morning.

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The first happened around 5 a.m. on Pie-IX Boulevard. Police say a car was shot at repeatedly and the driver, a 41-year-old man, was injured in the upper body. He was transported to hospital, but his life is not in danger, say police.

Shortly afterward, shots were reported in the Plateau Mont-Royal borough, near the intersection of Saint-Joseph Boulevard and Henri-Julien Avenue. No one was injured.

Police say they are investigating to determine if there is a connection between the collision and the shootings. Montreal police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant says it’s possible those in the vehicle were involved in the shootings.

The province’s independent police watchdog is now involved.

with files from Chloë Ranaldi

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