Canada is experiencing numbers of COVID-19 cases not seen since the height of the pandemic in the spring. In some provinces, they are even higher.
Ontario registered 700 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, the most on a single day since the outbreak began in late January.
Quebec recorded more than 800 new daily cases twice this week, including 896 on Sunday, its highest daily increase since May.
And both Alberta and B.C. are also seeing high daily numbers with case counts in the hundreds.
The premiers of the country’s two biggest provinces blame people that they say are socializing too much and too closely, foregoing social distancing and their bubbles.
The question is: what will it take to get people back on board?
Mixed messaging
There is evidence that people have relaxed when it comes to observing some public health guidelines. Some analysts blame fatigue with the rules — or the feeling that certain individuals believe they aren’t at risk of becoming sick.
But behavioural and medical experts suggest it’s more complicated than that, attributing people’s change in behaviours since the height of the lockdown on confusing and inconsistent messaging from political or health officials — and a loosening of rules that came too early.
“If they’re saying you can have larger gatherings, isn’t that saying there’s less of a risk?” said Susan Michie, a professor of health psychology and director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at UCL in London, England. “And if it’s less of a risk, then people will relax.”
“When we have restaurants and bars open, we telegraph to people that it is okay to be in a large gathering with no masks on as long as you’re in a restaurant,” infectious disease epidemiologist Colin Furness told CBC News. “And therefore why not in your living room? The mixed messaging is a real problem.”
WATCH | Furness says rules need to be clear and consistent:
Infectious disease epidemiologist Colin Furness says restrictions need to be tougher, messaging clearer and specific areas targetted in order to control surging COVID-19 cases in Canada. 6:02
“If [certain people] are not adhering, understand why they’re not. What are the problems? Try and solve those problems. Enforcement should only be a very last resort.”
She said it’s usually a small minority who are not following the rules; and it’s often not because they don’t want to.
“The data shows that often people do … intend to. But it’s either a problem of again being confused about what they are, or are not, meant to be doing or it’s a case of opportunity.”
She advises governments to consult with representatives of the groups who are most often not adhering to the rules and work from the bottom up.
(CBC News)
Approach is key
“Target especially the groups that are most challenged in terms of adhering to restrictions and work with them to co-create strategies. Listen to them… understand … what are the real barriers?”
For example, she said, some people may not self-isolate because they have to go to work to put food on the table or because they may lose their job. They may need to care for someone outside their home. Or they may want to maintain a two metre distance from others while getting outdoors, but live in a crowded city where park space fills up fast.
Officials have to be aware there are real challenges, she said. “Don’t just say we’re all in this together. Show us we are.”
He said the vast majority of Canadians are adhering to the rules.
When they were first introduced in the spring, about 90 per cent of Canadians were following them “most of the time,” he said. The messaging from health and political officials was clear.
The practice of handwashing and social distancing slipped to about 80 per cent through June and July. But in that same time frame, avoiding gatherings dropped to 53 per cent in June, as some restrictions were loosened, he said.
Adherence to the main measures has since come back up, but Bacon said that is likely due to the end of summer, with reduced opportunities to “hang out,” rather than a concerted effort to stop gathering.
Young people gather at the Break Water Park, near Gord Edgar Downie Pier, without any physical distancing in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)
Reinforcement of a positive
“A lot of the messaging that has come out of most governments is, ‘you need to do these behaviours so that … you keep people safe. You don’t kill granny,'” he said.
“What’s more motivating for people is not that, but seeing people do well,” he said, observing that most Canadians are quite altruistic and concerned about the impact the virus is having on others. “So it’s not the absence of a negative. It’s the reinforcement of a positive.”
Kim Lavoie, co-lead on the iCare project and Canada Research Chair in behavioural medicine at the University of Quebec at Montreal, also advocates a positive approach to messaging.
“You’ve got to thank everybody for their sacrifices and how difficult it’s been. You need to acknowledge sort of all the good that people are doing,” she said.
That means reinforcement of good behaviour, less calling out the bad and fewer threats of consequences, she added. “You need to make sure … the people who are adhering keep adhering. We don’t want to lose them.”
Basic human behaviour
She said it comes down to understanding basic human behaviour — that people aren’t just going to do what they’re told.
“The government needs to have a plan,” she said. “Share the plan and delineate very clearly what’s going to happen if we stick to the plan versus not,” while explaining how it will be made possible and how the population will be supported.
Above all, say both Lavoie and Bacon, be consistent.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, right, sits with Quebec Premier Francois Legault as they drink beer ahead of the Ontario-Quebec Summit, in Toronto, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)
“Here in Quebec … if you go into a store, you’ve got to wear a face mask. If you’re on a bus or on a train, you’ve got to wear a face mask. But if you’re a kid in a class of 30 other kids, it doesn’t matter,” said Bacon.
Quebec has not mandated mask-wearing in class. Students in grade 5 and up must wear them while moving in common areas, such as hallways, but once a student is inside the classroom, the mask rule does not apply.
Bacon said such inconsistencies create disconnects and give people the opportunity to ignore the guidelines.
“You give people the opportunity to go, wow, you know what? Wearing a mask doesn’t align with my personal desires. And you’ve just told me that perhaps they’re not that important because a large segment of society doesn’t need to use them, Bacon said. “Guess what? I’m going to align with that.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
