Ontario moved into the next step of its reopening plan on Wednesday, just hours before health officials reported the lowest single-day case number the province has seen since Sept. 10.
The province on Wednesday reported 14 additional deaths and 184 new cases of COVID-19.
The update came a day after the province’s top doctor said he’d prefer to wait a full 21 days before rolling back restrictions further.
“The two- to three-week cycle is very important to maintain so that we do the opening of Ontario in a stepwise manner, always going forward and not having to take a step back,” Dr. Kieran Moore said on Tuesday.
Moore made the comments at his first pandemic briefing since he officially took over as Ontario’s chief medical officer of health.
Ontario has surpassed COVID-19 vaccination targets for entering the second step of its reopening plan, which will allow more outdoor activities and more indoor services like haircuts to resume on Wednesday.
More than 77 per cent of people had at least one vaccine dose as of Tuesday morning and 37 per cent were fully vaccinated.
The province set 21 days between each step of its economic reopening to observe public health trends and allow vaccines to take full effect. It moved up the second step of the plan by a few days based on vaccination rates and other positive COVID-19 trends.
Ontario has also passed the goal set for entering the third step of the reopening plan, which would further expand capacity for indoor gatherings.
But Moore, like his predecessor Dr. David Williams, maintained on Tuesday that vaccination isn’t the only metric. He advised proceeding with caution with the more infectious delta variant spreading.
Waterloo Region not moving to Step 2
People with one vaccine dose are less protected against that variant and it’s contributed to local infection spikes in Grey Bruce and Waterloo Region. Waterloo won’t reopen with the rest of the province on Wednesday as it manages the rise in infections.
Moore said he’s watching the variant’s impact locally and internationally and that reopening must be done cautiously to avoid losing progress made in the fight against the virus so far.
“It is a difficult adversary. It’s aggressive. It wants to spread rapidly,” he said of the variant.
“We need to be prudent and we need that 21 days to be able to understand the impact of opening on our communities.”
-From The Canadian Press and CBC News last updated at 10:20 a.m. ET
What’s happening across Canada
WATCH | Masks still matter due to more transmissible delta variant, expert says:
Masks are our ‘last line of defence’ against the highly transmissible COVID-19 delta variant as Canada opens up, says respirologist Dr. Samir Gupta. (Ben Nelms/CBC) 1:39
As of 12:15 p.m. ET, Canada had reported 1,415,060 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 7,260 considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 26,291. More than 37.1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far across the country, according to CBC’s vaccine tracker.
In Quebec on Wednesday, health officials reported 126 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths.
Newfoundland and Labrador, meanwhile, reported one new case of COVID-19 on Wednesday, a day before the province begins welcoming more travellers from Canada.
The updates in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador came as Nova Scotia moved into Phase 3 of its reopening plan, which includes further opening to travellers seeking to come into the province from outside Atlantic Canada.
Across the North, there were no new cases reported in Nunavut on Wednesday. Health officials in the Northwest Territories and Yukon had not reported figures for the day.
However, Yukon’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Brendan Hanley said in a statement Tuesday that the territory is in a “new phase of the pandemic” as officials reported another 10 COVID-19 cases and one additional death.
In the Prairie provinces, Manitoba on Tuesday reported no new deaths and 61 new cases of COVID-19. Saskatchewan, meanwhile, reported two additional deaths and 52 additional cases of COVID-19.
WATCH | Laina Tuckanow lost her mother and grandmother to COVID-19 and says for her, life will never be normal again:
While many Canadians are celebrating a return to normal, for many the pain is still too raw. Laina Tuckanow lost her mother and grandmother to COVID-19 and says for her, life will never be normal again. 2:44
“Across the board, our numbers are moving in the right direction,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Tuesday, ahead of a broader reopening later this week.
“Cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and our positivity rate are the lowest they’ve been since last summer, early fall.”
British Columbia will move to Step 3 of its pandemic reopening plan on Thursday, lifting the provincial mask mandate and government state of emergency declaration. The news came as B.C. reported 29 new cases and no new deaths on Tuesday.
-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 12:15 p.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
People crowd the Shimulia ferry terminal to leave the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, ahead of a lockdown set to start on July 1. (Mahmud Hossain Opu/The Associated Press)
As of early Wednesday morning, more than 181.8 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported around the world, according to data published by Johns Hopkins University in the United States. The reported global death toll stood at more than 3.9 million.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Australian officials extended lockdown and physical distancing measures to more of the country on Wednesday, with four major cities already under a hard lockdown in a race to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious delta coronavirus variant.
Bangladesh is deploying army troops from Thursday to enforce a strict lockdown amid a record spike in coronavirus cases driven by the delta variant first detected in India, the government said on Wednesday.
“No one will be allowed go out except in case of an emergency during this period,” the government said in a statement, warning that army troops alongside law-enforcement agencies would be deployed to enforce the lockdown.
In the Americas, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the CDC is leaving it up to local officials to set guidelines for mask-wearing as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus surges in areas with low vaccination rates.
Walensky said Wednesday on NBC’s Today show that “we’ve always said that local policymakers need to make policies for their local environment,” but added CDC guidelines broadly indicate those who are vaccinated don’t need to wear masks.
Health officials in Los Angeles County are recommending people wear masks indoors in public places regardless of their vaccination status. Separately, the World Health Organization has reiterated its longstanding recommendation that everyone wear masks to lessen the spread of the coronavirus.
In Africa, the Tunisian government on Tuesday extended the hours of night curfew in an effort to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19, as the North African country reached a daily record of cases since the start of the pandemic last year.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday imposed a dusk to dawn curfew, banned inter-city travel and cut business hours with immediate effect in response to increasing coronavirus infections.
Roofing Rolling Mills workers refill oxygen tanks to be distributed to various hospitals in Uganda, free of charge, at their factory in Namanve, Wakiso, Uganda, on Tuesday. The factory refills 350-400 oxygen tanks daily, following a surge in COVID-19 cases within the country and lack of oxygen at different hospitals. (Badru Katamba/AFP/Getty Images)
In Europe, Greece will allow people fully vaccinated against the coronavirus inside restaurants without masks, the government said, as part of measures to boost inoculation rates.
Russia will fail to vaccinate 60 per cent of its population by the autumn as planned due to sluggish demand for the shots, the Kremlin said, after the country recorded its highest number of daily deaths from the virus.
In the Middle East, Oman said it was expanding its vaccination drive to anyone over the age of 18, as it accelerates what has been the slowest rollout in the Gulf.
CALGARY – There’s a darkness in the work of venerated Canadian war artist Bill MacDonnell, who has spent three decades travelling the world as a self-described silent witness.
MacDonnell’s paintings document the impact of conflict from Bosnia to Afghanistan as well as revisiting atrocities of the past.
He has inspired other artists to follow in his footsteps, and an exhibit of his work is on display at the Military Museums in Calgary through Remembrance Day and into 2025.
“Bill’s very much into the idea of watching, very quietly. You don’t see many people in his works,” said curator Dick Averns, who has met and written about MacDonnell, and was inspired to travel to the Middle East as part of the Canadian Forces War Artists Program.
“A lot of Bill MacDonnell’s work is around the theme of cultural amnesia. They draw attention to histories that are in danger of being forgotten.”
Averns said it was MacDonnell’s example that encouraged him to apply.
“My drive was to have that first-hand experience. My theory in making the art and having a critical eye similar to Bill’s is ‘What are the unseen areas?’ I was interested in relationships between oil, the war in Iraq and 9/11.”
Lt.-Col. Bill Bewick, now retired from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, had taken over as commander of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment when he took MacDonnell to Croatia with the United Nations Protective Force in 1994.
“He’d been over to Europe and various places before, but I think that was his first combat experience,” said Bewick, who took art lessons from MacDonnell years later at what was then called the Alberta College of Art and Design.
“We found a stone building that collapsed with old people and some others incapacitated in it.
“It was a low priority to dig the people out because they were all deceased and we saw that, and the odours associated with that. Those kind of experiences for an artist are pretty intense.”
MacDonnell went back on his own a few months later and visited Sarajevo.
MacDonnell could not be reached for an interview and was unable to attend the opening of his exhibit.
Of the two dozen paintings on display, many depict the aftermath of war with destroyed buildings.
His 1995 painting “Mined Churchyard” show a bombed Serbian church in Bosnia.
“They’re all rather depressing. They’re not happy paintings. There’s no happy paintings,” said Bewick.
“There’s a couple with colour. There’s a nice green grass over there but there’s some other stuff that’s not so happy.”
Averns said the two patches of colour are both of mass graves from eastern Europe and Kyiv when it was part of the former Soviet Union.
In Babi Yar, almost 34,000 Jews were murdered and dumped in a ravine by the Nazis in 1941 as they made their way through Europe.
“They were either shot at the edge of the ravine or they were marched in to lie one on top of the other and shot in the back of the neck,” said Averns.
The mass grave is now a memorial site.
“There was no marker at this site for decades. You can see (on the canvas) here one of the monuments — a ramp with tumbling figures meeting their demise as they went down into the ravine.”
Averns said the second painting shows the mass graves commemorating the German siege of Leningrad, which lasted 900 days and saw 800,000 deaths.
The exhibit is MacDonnell’s first in Western Canada since 2006.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…
Donald Trump declares victory and secures political comeback
Former president Donald Trump is poised to return to White House after a polarizing U.S. election that deeply divided the country. The U.S. election on Tuesday saw Trump post early wins in critical states by taking Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. Vice-President Kamala Harris did not appear at her election night party at her alma mater Howard University in Washington. Top aides told the audience that Democrats would continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted. However, U.S. TV networks projected Trump would be the winner early Wednesday morning.
Final day for nominations in Nova Scotia election
Today is the final day for candidate nominations in Nova Scotia’s provincial election campaign. Under the province’s Elections Act, nominations must close 20 days before election day on Nov. 26. The Progressive Conservatives confirmed in a news release last week that they will have a full slate of 55 candidates. The NDP and Liberals confirmed Tuesday that they will have a full slate of candidates, though there was no immediate word from the Green Party. At dissolution, the Progressive Conservatives held 34 seats in the 55-seat legislature, the Liberals held 14 seats, the NDP had six and there was one Independent.
Here’s what else we’re watching…
Nunavut premier to face confidence vote Wednesday
Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok is expected to face a confidence vote today in the territorial legislature. In a surprise move on Monday, Aivilik MLA Solomon Malliki gave notice that he’d present a motion calling for Akeeagok to be stripped of his premiership and removed from cabinet. In Nunavut’s consensus style of government — in which there are no political parties — the MLAs elect a premier from amongst themselves. If the motion passes, Akeeagok would be the second premier in Nunavut’s history to be ousted by the Legislative Assembly.
Greater Toronto home sales surge in October: board
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says home sales in October surged as buyers continued moving off the sidelines amid lower interest rates. The board says 6,658 homes changed hands last month in the Greater Toronto Area, up 44.4 per cent compared with 4,611 in the same month last year. Sales were up 14 per cent from September on a seasonally adjusted basis. Board president Jennifer Pearce says that while it is still early in the Bank of Canada’s key interest rate cutting cycle, homebuyers appear motivated by lower borrowing costs which contributed to a “positive affordability picture” last month alongside relatively flat home prices.
Work of Canadian war artist on display in Calgary
More than two dozen paintings from respected Canadian war artist Bill MacDonnell are on display at the Military Museums in Calgary. MacDonnell spent three decades recording conflicts in Europe, Bosnia and Afghanistan but also looked back at atrocities from the past. Two of his paintings depict mass graves from the Second World War in Kyiv and Russia. Curator Dick Averns says MacDonnell considered himself to be a silent witness to some of the atrocities of war and usually involved destroyed buildings and the aftermath of war. The exhibit at the Military Museums in Calgary is the first for the artist since 2006.
Paula Hawkins talks isolation and new thriller
In Paula Hawkins’ latest thriller, people are emerging from pandemic isolation, engaging with culture once again, when a gallerygoer notices something a bit off about a sculpture displayed at the Tate Modern: it contains a deer bone that looks like it might actually be human. Set in the U.K. art scene, the end of COVID-19 lockdowns is a catalyst for the plot in the was-there-a-murder mystery. The thriller, centred on a mysterious museum collection hiding deadly secrets, is told from three perspectives: that of an artist who died shortly before the onset of the pandemic, her friend-turned-caretaker-turned-executor, and the museum curator tasked with retrieving the remaining artworks left to his employer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has extended congratulations to Donald Trump on his re-election as president of the United States.
Trump staged a major political comeback, securing the necessary 270 electoral college votes to win the presidency in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
This concludes a turbulent campaign for Trump, which included being convicted of 34 felonies in a hush-money case and two assassination attempts.
“On behalf of the government of Canada, I congratulate Donald Trump on being elected as President of the United States of America for a second term, and Senator JD Vance for his election as Vice-President of the United States,” Trudeau said in a statement.
“Canada and the U.S. have the world’s most successful partnership. We are neighbours and friends, united by a shared history, common values, and steadfast ties between our peoples. We are also each other’s largest trade partners and our economies are deeply intertwined.”
Trudeau added that in Trump’s first term, the two nations along with Mexico successfully negotiated the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement. Trudeau stressed the multi-billion dollar value of cross-border trade.
That trade deal is up for review in 2026, and Trump has promised to introduce a universal 10-per-cent tariff on all American imports.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly also shared her congratulations on the social media platform X.
“Canada and the U.S. are friends, neighbours and allies — deeply connected through our economies and our people,” she wrote.
“Together, we’ll focus on investment, growth and global peace and security.” Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman also extended congratulations to Trump and his running mate JD Vance.
“We have the great fortune of being neighbours, and the U.S. has no closer partner and ally than Canada. Looking forward to working together toward a more prosperous and secure future,” she said in a statement.
![](https://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/437/1019/MASKS.jpg?crop=1.777xh:h;*,*&downsize=510px:* 510w")
![](https://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/266/622/COVID-FAMILY-LOSS-ALLEN-290621.jpg?crop=1.777xh:h;*,*&downsize=510px:* 510w")
