Many provinces indicated Wednesday they would not rush to follow the lead of Alberta and Saskatchewan by quickly dropping COVID-19 vaccination passports and indoor mask requirements.
“Just because one province is doing something doesn’t mean we’re necessarily going to do that,” said Dr. Jazz Atwal, Manitoba’s deputy chief public health officer.
Manitoba is hoping to lift all restrictions by spring, but Atwal said the plan will be dictated by science — not the decisions of other jurisdictions or demands from protesters.
Easing public health orders in Ontario will also be done with caution and only when it’s safe to do so, said Health Minister Christine Elliott. She added that proof of vaccination and masks will be required for some time.
“We have no plans currently to drop the passport vaccination situation or masking. We believe that masking is going to be important for some time to come,” Elliott said at a news conference in Kitchener, Ont., adding that the province is following advice from the chief medical officer and other expert advisers.
“We are not in the clear yet,” Elliott said.
WATCH | ‘We believe that masking is going to be important for some time to come,’ Ontario’s health minister says:
Ontario not dropping vaccine passport or masking for now, says minister
11 hours ago
Duration 1:25
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott says the province is sticking to a cautious path toward loosening public health restrictions because of the spread of highly transmissible coronavirus variants. 1:25
Ontario is tracking on a best-case projection, she said, after gradually lifting some restrictions on businesses and social gatherings late last month. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals Wednesday was down 195 from Tuesday to 2,059.
Saskatchewan and Alberta announced Tuesday their intentions to get rid of vaccination passports, mandatory masks and nearly all other COVID-19 rules in the coming weeks.
The proof-of-vaccination requirement, known in Alberta as the restriction exemption program, and capacity limits at most venues ended Wednesday. And starting Monday, masks will no longer be mandatory in all settings for children under 12 and for all students in schools.
Saskatchewan plans to scrap its vaccine passport policy on Monday and end nearly all public health orders, including indoor mask mandates, by the end of the month.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, has said hospitals across the country remain heavily strained. “We’re not out of the woods,” Tam said on social media Tuesday.
Saskatchewan infectious diseases specialist Dr. Alexander Wong echoed that thought, saying it’s too soon to end proof-of-vaccination measures.
“A lot of these decision feel, at least to me and for many health-care workers in our province, like it’s just been a real rush.”
WATCH | Dr. Wong says vaccine mandates are the best way to boost immunization rates:
Sask. doctor says lifting proof-of-vaccine measure too rushed
1 day ago
Duration 4:51
The decision to end proof-of-vaccination in Saskatchewan is coming too soon, says Dr. Alexander Wong, an infectious diseases specialist in Regina. He suggested it is more likely due to political pressure. 4:51
Health officials across the country, saying it’s time to learn to live with COVID-19, have been announcing gradual reopening strategies.
“You’re tired. We are too. Everyone is tired of COVID,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said Wednesday. “But COVID has proven to be a formidable opponent.”
Houston announced some restrictions around gathering sizes, capacity limits and sports events are to be loosened next week. He said that’s possible because less than 10 per cent of eligible Nova Scotians are unvaccinated and the province is leading the country in booster shots.
He said the move isn’t because of protests in Ottawa and elsewhere against vaccine mandates and other public health orders.
Federal ministers again urged protesters to stop blocking roads and border crossings, and to cease incessant honking.
Trucks and people seen in downtown Ottawa during an ongoing protest against vaccine mandates on Feb. 4, 2022. (Michael Charles Cole/CBC)
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said every Canadian is frustrated that the pandemic has persisted and normal life is still not achievable. But, he said, health measures to keep people safe have always been informed by advice from public health experts.
“There is a point in the future, that day is coming, where we will be back to life as normal,” Mendicino said.
“In the meantime, we can all be exhausted about it. We can be fatigued about it, (but) that can never be a justification to somebody going beyond the boundaries of the law and creating an illegal blockade and hurting Canadians.”
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs pointed out that provincial and territorial governments are all following through on plans to lift COVID-19 measures, albeit some faster than others. Soon most areas of the country will have minimal restrictions, he said.
“You kind of wonder, ‘What is the point at this stage?” Higgs said about the protesters.
-From The Canadian Press, last updated at 5 p.m. ET.
What’s happening across Canada
Omicron breakthrough infection could boost immunity
1 day ago
Duration 2:04
New research suggests that getting infected with the Omicron variant after being fully vaccinated could help boost immunity, but unvaccinated people don’t appear to get the same benefit. 2:04
In Central Canada, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott announced expanded access to free rapid tests. The province has 2,059 people in hospital with COVID-19 Wednesday, including 449 in the ICU.
The province currently has 2,348 people in hospitals being treated for the virus, including 171 in intensive care.
In Atlantic Canada, officials in Prince Edward Island put forward a plan to ease COVID-19 restrictions with a three-step process set to begin on Feb. 17. The second step on the Island is tentatively scheduled for mid-March, with the third step set for early April. The province currently has seven people in hospital with COVID-19, including one in the ICU.
New Brunswick is also moving to loosen restrictions, beginning Feb. 18. Premier Blaine Higgs said Wednesday that the province will move to Level 1, which means social bubbles will increase to 20 from 10, while businesses — including retail, spas and salons, entertainment centres, gyms and restaurant dining rooms — can return to full capacity.
Proof of vaccination will still be required where it has been previously. Masks will remain mandatory in all indoor public places, as well as outdoor public places when physical distancing can’t be maintained.
There are 139 people in New Brunswick hospitals being treated for COVID-19, with 15 in the ICU.
Newfoundland and Labrador officials announced some changes Tuesday, when health officials said restrictions on gatherings and sporting events were being eased. As of Wednesday, there were 20 people in hospital with COVID-19, with seven people in the ICU.
Nova Scotia saw its hospitalization numbers remain unchanged Wednesday, with 91 people still in hospital. An additional two people are in intensive care, for a total of 16. Premier Tim Houston said the numbers support a move to fewer restrictions, beginning Feb. 14.
This will include loosening restrictions on sports and arts and culture events and allowing retail stores to operate at full capacity. Gyms will be able to operate at 75 per cent capacity and cosmetologists will be able to resume all services.
In the Prairie provinces, Saskatchewan is lifting all of its pandemic public health orders in a phased approach that is to begin Monday with the removal of its COVID-19 vaccine passport policy. At the end of the month, it also plans to end its indoor mask mandate and the requirement for people to self-isolate if they test positive for the virus.
“The benefits of this policy no longer outweigh the costs,” said Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who added people should be able to choose whether to get vaccinated.
Alberta‘s shift is coming even faster. The province’s passport has ended, and most other big COVID-19 health rules will be lifted in about three weeks.
“Restrictions, mandates, and those kinds of interventions will not — and must not — become a permanent feature of our lives,” Premier Jason Kenney said at a briefing outlining the shift on Tuesday.
The premier said COVID-19 vaccines “are doing what we always said they would do, to protect us from severe illness and outcomes.”
Alberta reported 1,615 people were in hospital Wednesday with the virus, including 135 patients in intensive care.
Manitoba began to allow larger private gatherings and higher capacity in public spaces for people who are fully vaccinated as of Tuesday. The acting deputy chief public health officer said Wednesday that the new rules will be in place for at least two weeks and will be loosened further only if the numbers warrant.
“We’re going to look at the situation. We’re going to look at our data. We’re not going to speculate on our orders; they were just changed yesterday,” Dr. Jazz Atwal said.
The province has 680 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 43 in the ICU.
There are four people in hospital in Yukon with COVID-19. The other two territories did not have any patients being treated in the hospital as of Wednesday.
In British Columbia, Provincial Health OfficerDr. Bonnie Henry said Wednesday that as current restrictions expire next week, she will share the province’s plan to move forward.
“You will hear less about the pandemic as we get through this wave and more about how we continue to manage our personal risks as restrictions are adjusted in step with what we are seeing in terms of transmission and hospitalizations.”
There are currently 893 people with COVID-19 in B.C. hospitals, including 143 in intensive care units. There have also been 18 additional deaths from the virus.
-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 7:30 p.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
As of late Wednesday afternoon, more than 402.4 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.7 million.
“Depending on where you live, it might feel like the COVID-19 pandemic is almost over, or it might feel like it is at its worst,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, said at a briefing on Wednesday.
“But wherever you live, COVID isn’t finished with us,” Tedros said, adding that the virus will continue to evolve. But the world is not defenceless against COVID-19, he said, pointing to vaccines, tests and treatments.
The biggest barrier to ending the pandemic as a global health emergency is making sure people in all countries have access to those critical tools, he said, as he made a plea for billions in funding for the ACT-Accelerator.
The ACT-Accelerator is a global collaborative project meant to ensure people in low- and middle-income countries have access to essential tests, treatments, vaccines and personal protective equipment.
“Where people have access to those tools, this virus can be brought under control. Where they don’t, this virus continues to spread, to evolve, and to kill”-<a href=”https://twitter.com/DrTedros?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@DrTedros</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ACTogether?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#ACTogether</a>
“We have a plan, we have the tools, we have hope,” he said. “Now we need the resources to execute the plan everywhere, make the tools available everywhere and make hope a reality everywhere.”
The last set of coronavirus disease PCR tests are collected at the testing site as Sweden changes its approach towards coronavirus testing, in Svagertorp, Malmoe, Sweden on Tuesday. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency/Reuters)
In Europe, Sweden has halted wide-scale testing for COVID-19 even among people showing symptoms of an infection, putting an end to the mobile city-square tent sites, drive-in swab centres and home-delivered tests that became ubiquitous during the pandemic and provided essential data for tracking the virus’s spread.
The move puts the Scandinavian nation at odds with most of Europe, but some experts say it could become the norm as costly testing yields fewer benefits with the easily transmissible but milder Omicron variant and as governments begin to consider treating COVID-19 like they do other endemic illnesses.
For most of the pandemic, Sweden stood out among European nations for its comparatively hands-off response. It never went into lockdown or closed businesses, largely relying instead on individual responsibility to control infections. While coronavirus deaths were high compared with other Nordic countries, they were lower than many other places in Europe that did implement lockdowns.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre told a reporter at a WHO briefing on Wednesday that his country, along with Denmark and Sweden, have lifted many restrictions recently they enter a phase of the pandemic “where the cost of the restrictions really outweigh the burden on the health service.”
“Each country has to make its judgment on that national call,” he said. But the Norwegian leader said that shouldn’t lead to a situation in which people think the “pandemic is behind us” or that global solidarity in fighting the virus is not needed.
WATCH | Norway’s prime minister defends his move to end most restrictions while the pandemic continues:
‘Moral obligation’ to help other countries end COVID-19 pandemic: Norwegian PM
12 hours ago
Duration 3:11
Despite lifting COVID-19 restrictions, richer countries maintain a moral responsibility to help end the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, says Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. 3:11
In the Americas, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stands by its mask-wearing guidance for public kindergarten to Grade 12 schools, with COVID-19 cases still high countrywide, even as some states plan to relax masking rules, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Reuters.
A child wearing a face mask arrives at school in New York City in early January. Some states are moving away from mask mandates for schools. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)
In the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong’s daily COVID-19 infections nearly doubled to a record 1,161 cases on Wednesday, authorities said, as the global financial hub battles a rapid surge that is shaping up to be the biggest test yet of its “dynamic zero” policy.
Residents line up to get tested for the coronavirus at a temporary testing centre for COVID-19 in Hong Kong on Wednesday, where COVID-19 cases have been on the rise. (Kin Cheung/The Associated Press)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday that the government would extend COVID-19 restrictions in Tokyo and 12 prefectures by three weeks as the Omicron variant continued to spread. Japan has been breaking daily records for coronavirus cases and deaths.
In the Middle East, health officials said on Wednesday that 116 people had died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Health officials also reported an additional 39,085 additional cases of the novel coronavirus.
In Africa, health officials in South Africa on Tuesday reported 2,824 new cases of COVID-19 and 268 additional deaths.
-From Reuters, CBC News and The Associated Press, last updated at 5:15 p.m. ET
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.
