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Curfews, crackdowns or more? What experts say Canada must do to get a handle on COVID-19 – CTV News
TORONTO —
An upcoming nightly curfew in Quebec is hogging the headlines, but some public health experts say it’s another plank of Premier Francois Legault’s new plan that other provinces should pay the most attention to.
Legault announced Wednesday several new measures aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus in the province, where the COVID-19 curve has been rising sharply since late November.
The measures include a curfew that will affect the vast majority of Quebecers. As of Saturday, anyone caught outside their home between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. for any reason other than work, walking a pet within one kilometre of their home or visiting a pharmacy will be subject to a fine of up to $6,000.
CTV News’ Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Abdu Sharkway told CTV’s Your Morning on Thursday that while the curfew may seem heavy-handed, it is necessary to find a way to reverse COVID-19’s upward trend in Quebec.
“If incentive to do the right thing isn’t working, at some point, when do you have to invoke disincentive to make sure that more people don’t die and that our health-care system doesn’t collapse?” he said.
“We’re really playing with fire at this point in time.”
Places of worship will also be closed around the clock in Quebec, except for funerals with up to 10 people in attendance. Legault additionally said that “non-essential” manufacturing operations will be halted, although discussions are still ongoing to determine what exactly that entails.
WORKPLACE WOES
Even that first hint of a willingness to close non-retail and non-service workplaces is a positive sign that may do more to slow the pandemic than the curfew, Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious disease specialist affiliated with McMaster University in Hamilton, told CTVNews.ca.
“I think everyone is focusing on the curfew part. The one thing that I think may actually have a big potent effect … is the fact that they’re looking at really ramping down manufacturing,” he said Thursday via telephone.
“It’s showing up more and more that workplaces are becoming a major, major issue.”
As of Dec. 23, 2020 – the last report available – there were 699 active workplace outbreaks in Quebec. In total, they had been directly linked to 3,367 cases of COVID-19. Manufacturing facilities accounted for 27 per cent of those outbreaks and 40 per cent of those cases.
Data released this week by the City of Toronto shows that manufacturing facilities, construction sites, offices and warehouses account for more than 40 per cent of workplace outbreaks in Canada’s largest city during the pandemic – more than three times as many as bars and restaurants.
Despite that, lockdown-like measures to date have largely focused on bars, restaurants and other public-facing businesses, while requiring non-public-facing workplaces only to ensure mask-wearing and physical distancing.
“Many of our lockdowns really haven’t been able to [tackle workplace transmission],” Chagla said.
“If hospitals and long-term care facilities struggle to prevent transmission to their staff for COVID coming in, then a workplace is going to be even harder to try to prevent that type of transmission.”
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases physician affiliated with the University of Toronto, said Thursday that “upstream drivers” of COVID-19 cases, such as workplace transmission, need to be addressed by any new public health restrictions.
“Otherwise, this is a Band-Aid solution,” he told CTV News Channel.
As for the curfew, Chagla said he is “not 100 per cent certain” about its effectiveness.
Curfews have been used in Australia, France and other jurisdictions as part of successful efforts to flatten COVID-19 curves, but Chagla said there is little proof that the curfews themselves made as much of a difference as other measures introduced around the same time.
“There’s not great evidence to suggest it actually works, other than that when these things get rolled out, they get rolled out as a bundle – so when it works, you don’t know which part of the bundle was actually the component that worked,” he said.
THE ‘CANADIAN SHIELD’ APPROACH
Meanwhile, a group of 17 public health experts and business leaders is calling for other provinces to enact measures far stronger than Quebec’s.
They released a strategy last week that they call “the Canadian Shield,” arguing that Canada should be placed into a “short, sharp” and more severe lockdown until the national COVID-19 active case tally is approximately one-quarter its current size.
Once that has been achieved, they argue, the caseload will be low enough for the World Health Organization-endorsed strategy of testing, contact tracing and isolation to be effective. Restrictions could then start to be relaxed, as long as the number of active cases continues to fall by between 17 and 25 per cent per week.
While the restrictions are in place, the group argues, governments would need to do more than they have done thus far to support the people and businesses most affected by the lockdown.
One of the 17 people behind this strategy is André Beaulieu, the senior vice-president of corporate services for Bell Canada, which owns CTV News.
In a report released last week, the group argued that if their recommendations were followed immediately, the active case total in Canada could fall by 75 per cent by the end of January, the country could see fewer than 40 new cases a day by May 1, and 5,000 lives could be saved. Following the current path could lead to 9,000 new infections per day in the spring, even as vaccines are rolled out, they said.
“Building the Canadian Shield is a challenging strategy requiring quick, decisive actions by government and a whole of society engagement. However, it is achievable, and massively better than the status quo,” they wrote.
Asked for his opinion, Chagla said he can see the Canadian Shield strategy being realistic as far as reducing COVID-19 cases and deaths, but worries it does not account for “collateral damage” such as increases in depression, financial instability, household violence and worsened non-COVID-19 medical outcomes as a result of a more severe lockdown.
“More restrictive measures and that are needed. Supports for essential populations and essential staff are needed. Ramping down manufacturing as much as possible is needed. But to do this bundled approach, to significantly lock down as part of the approach … I have some hesitation saying that’s an ideal plan to roll out,” he said.
“People are so frustrated, so upset, they see a lot of inconsistencies with public health messaging – I’m able to do X but not Y – I don’t think, without huge militaristic support, you’re able to even invoke a plan like this.”
‘THIS SITUATION IS UNTENABLE’
There are also questions around how Quebec plans to enforce its curfew. Existing COVID-19 restrictions have been haphazardly enforced in many Canadian jurisdictions. More than 40,000 people entering or returning to Canada during have been contacted by police about concerns they are not following quarantine restrictions, but only 138 of those interactions had resulted in tickets or charges as of last week.
“A lot of questions arise in my mind around ‘How is this going to be enforced? How do you determine if somebody’s out for an essential reason or not?'” Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious diseases specialist at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ont., said Wednesday on CTV News Channel.
Whatever the strategy, the experts say it’s important that something be done to stop Canada’s ever-escalating COVID-19 case counts from continuing on their current path.
“This situation is untenable. We simply cannot accept the loss of life that is going on in much of Canada at this time,” Sharkaway said.
Bogoch cautioned that there was ample warning of the current COVID-19 spike “for probably over a month,” and that numbers will likely continue to increase in the near future.
“You’ve got your health-care system in many parts of the country stretched beyond capacity, you’ve got ICUs that are full, you’ve got rising case numbers, rising hospitalizations, rising deaths,” he said.
“This is clearly, clearly an emergency. It is not going to get better. It is probably going to get worse over the next couple of weeks.”
News
Just bought a used car? There’s a chance it’s stolen, as thieves exploit weakness in vehicle registrations
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The fight against Canada’s worst-ever auto theft epidemic has largely focused on ramping up inspections at shipping ports, where organized crime groups have exported the overwhelming majority of stolen vehicles.
But criminals are adapting, police say, by increasingly selling hot vehicles in Canada to unsuspecting buyers with little protection, exploiting a weakness in provincial registration systems that veteran investigators argue needs to be fixed.
“The market is so lucrative it’s easy cash,” said Det. Sgt. Greg O’Connor of Peel Regional Police, west of Toronto.
While it is impossible to know what criminals do with all stolen cars and difficult to track shifting trends, police now estimate nearly one-third of stolen vehicles are being resold in Canada, marking a significant increase from just six months ago when the vast majority of vehicles were believed to have been exported.
And often, buyers have no idea.
Derek Crocker bought a used Ford F-150 pickup truck from a dealership in Toronto in 2022. Just a few months later, his own investigation revealed the truck’s vehicle identification number — or VIN — had been replaced, mirroring the VIN of a similar truck registered in Utah.
“The whole reason you buy it from a dealership is so you don’t have to worry about dealing with that sort of thing,” he said.
In retrospect, there were small tells.
After Crocker entered what should have been the truck’s unique VIN in Ford’s app, the function to remotely start the vehicle never worked. The app also listed the vehicle as being located in the United States and indicated a different amount of fuel than his own vehicle tank was holding.
But it wasn’t until his F-150 was in an accident and required body work that the problem with the VIN was revealed. The repair shop ordered parts based on the VIN it saw on the dash. But the parts did not match.
“So I Googled the VIN number that was on my truck, and I found a truck for sale in Utah,” said Crocker.
It turns out that was the true VIN, which thieves had cloned, placing fake VIN stickers with the Utah truck’s VIN on top of the true number for the truck Crocker bought.
VINs are most prominently displayed on a vehicle’s dashboard, as well as on the ownership title. When a vehicle is stolen, the VIN is flagged across North America to prevent it being sold.
But criminals are replacing the VIN plate, often with one from a comparable vehicle that has been totalled, legally exported or one registered in another province or U.S. state. They may go through junkyards, export records or simply walk through a mall parking lot to find a VIN to clone.
In doing so, they re-VIN or “wash” the vehicle of its stolen status.
Crocker called police, who seized the vehicle and returned it to the insurance company of the original owner.
Crocker’s own insurance would not cover his loss because he’d — albeit unknowingly — purchased a stolen vehicle. After a long discussion with the dealership that sold him the stolen truck, his money was returned.
“They did nothing extra,” Crocker said. “They didn’t help me at all.”
How could 2 cars with the same VIN be registered?
Provincial centres that administer vehicle registration, such as ServiceOntario, do not have a system that checks if VINs already exist in other jurisdictions.
“You can have a vehicle registered in one province and the same VIN on a different vehicle registered in another and we need to stop that,” David Adams, president and CEO of Global Automakers of Canada, told a recent auto theft summit in the Greater Toronto Area.
Neither Canada nor the United States has a national vehicle registry. Multiple police agencies are urging federal and provincial governments to create one.
“The reality is this is a national issue. And that’s why a national registry that moves itself beyond any sort of provincial jurisdiction is important in all capacities,” Nick Milinovich, deputy chief of Peel Regional Police, said in an interview.
CBC News asked Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General why the province’s database can’t detect whether the same VIN is actively being used in another province or state.
“If changes to the provincial registration process are required, we won’t hesitate to make them,” it responded in a statement.
How to spot a potentially stolen car for sale
While it is impossible to know precisely how many fraudulently registered stolen vehicles are back on the road, recoveries have surged.
“The number of re-VINS is just blowing through the roof right now,” said O’Connor. “It’s costing drivers, banks, insurance companies big money. It’s a massive problem.”
It is impossible to know the full extent of the illegal economy and the proportion of vehicle exported versus those kept in the country. But police forces across southern Ontario have reported a surge in recoveries of vehicles that have had their VINs altered.
Car buyers are being advised to look at the VIN on the dashboard and the pillar between the front and back driver’s side doors to see if the numbering is bubbling, a sign there may be a sticker on top of the real VIN.
Running the VIN through a paid service like Carfax could also yield key warning signs. For example: a vehicle that records show has been declared salvage after a crash later reappearing undamaged. Or a VIN with a sales and registration history almost exclusively in one province or state suddenly being for sale in another.
If an insurance company discovers a vehicle has a fraudulent VIN, the policy is voided. When police seized Crocker’s truck, insurance would not pay to replace it. He was only able to recover his money when the dealership that sold the stolen truck paid him out.
But police and insurance investigators have begun to warn of a proliferation of re-VINed vehicles being sold exclusively through social media platforms like Instagram.
“If you’re paying cash for that vehicle [in a private sale] or you do a bank transfer,” said O’Connor, “there’s no recourse.”
WATCH | A stolen car is found in Ghana:
CBC’s David Common informs Len Green that his stolen car has been found in Ghana, 8,500 kilometres from Toronto, where it first went missing a year ago.
Registry employees alleged to be in on the crime
Police also allege organized crime has recruited employees at ServiceOntario, the registration centres operated on behalf of the province that offer an array of services, including issuing licences and managing the database of registered vehicles.
At the end of 2023, Toronto police charged seven ServiceOntario employees with a collective 73 charges, including fraud over $5,000, tampering with a vehicle identification number, breach of trust by a public officer and trafficking in identity information.
They allegedly provided an auto theft ring with registered addresses for specific vehicle models. Once stolen, the same employees assisted the ring in “re-VINing” the vehicles.
Fraudulent VINs may never be detected, although Peel police alone have seized more than 50 such vehicles in 2024 alone.
At other times, employees at ServiceOntario have flagged suspicious activity, such as when the same person shows up dozens of times to register different vehicles. That was allegedly the case with Milton Hylton, who was charged with 168 counts of various Criminal Code offences in March.
He was released on bail, pending trial. No charges are yet proven.
WATCH | An alleged repeat re-VINer is arrested:
CBC News takes you inside a police surveillance operation, witnessing an auto theft takedown connected to a growing aspect of the billion-dollar crime. Criminal rings are increasingly selling stolen cars in Canada to car buyers who often have no idea.
According to the warrant used to search his home and requested by Peel Regional Police Const. Gurinder Athwal, the 24-year-old travelled to “multiple ServiceOntario locations throughout the province and fraudulently registered vehicles.” Police say more than 100 vehicles were involved, and describe stolen Dodge Rams, Dodge Durangos and BMWs among them.
CBC News was present at the moment of Hylton’s arrest in Mississauga as multiple undercover police vehicles conducting surveillance moved in.
As investigators searched and then towed his silver Mazda, they say they found documents to register even more vehicles inside.
Hylton had just a few weeks earlier been banned from entering ServiceOntario locations without an appointment, because of suspicions. He was in the company of a woman he identified as his girlfriend. His sister was also arrested days later and now faces 36 charges of uttering forged documents and trafficking of stolen goods.
3rd-party registration being exploited
In a news release, Peel police describe Hylton as using “loopholes in the ServiceOntario procedures that allow ‘authorized’ individuals to conduct third-party transactions.”
While third-party registration is intended for car dealers, provisions for it mean nearly any individual can transfer registration of a vehicle or register a vehicle in another person’s name.
This process is typical in other Canadian provinces, too.
“It’s a huge problem,” said O’Connor. “And that’s how a lot of these vehicles are getting through.”
For instance, the warrant in the Hylton case alleges he transferred vehicle ownerships to both a speciality tool shop in Etobicoke and an automotive exporter in St. Catharines. Neither business authorized the transfers, and both insist Hylton is neither an employee nor known to them.
Were the vehicles in question stolen, the new registration would have detached them from their previous owners. Anyone buying the vehicles would be none the wiser and would have no insurance or other protection if the vehicle’s stolen status was ever uncovered.
Peel police say Hylton sold dozens of vehicles over a year through social media under the Instagram handle “Royalty in the Building.”
That name is associated with Facebook and Instagram accounts where apparent car buyers offer testimonials.
“I called up Milton. I told him I got my money up, I need plates, I need a car. And he got it just like that,” a person said in a testimonial while standing in front of a Honda Civic.
“Got my new SUV, fully loaded. Tints, light, rims, inside’s clean. Everything’s legit,” another person said in a testimonial.
“You give him your cash. You’re on the road. You ain’t got to go to ServiceOntario. You don’t got to do no running around,” said another.
WATCH | Inside a weeks-long auto theft investigation:
CBC’s David Common gets exclusive access inside an auto theft surveillance operation, targeting a suspect who allegedly re-vinned more than 100 stolen vehicles to be resold, sometimes to unsuspecting buyers in Canada.
CBC News spoke with several police and insurance officials from across the Greater Toronto Area about third-party registrations.
Each insisted the loophole needed to be closed to prevent illegal transfers. But none wanted to speak on the record, citing the provincial Ministry of Transportation as a good partner they did not want to publicly besmirch.
Meanwhile, the auto theft problem continues to grow.
In 2022, an unprecedented $1.2 billion worth of vehicles were stolen across the entire country. By 2023, more than $1 billion was lost in just Ontario alone, according to the Équité Association, the national organization charged with reducing insurance fraud.
“It’s one of the top three revenue generators for organized crime,” said Milinovich. “It’s high reward, low risk, and an easy crime.”
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OTTAWA –
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
Just shy of half the respondents to Leger’s latest survey said they had a negative opinion of the federal budget, which was presented last Tuesday.
Only 21 per cent said they had a positive opinion, and one-third of respondents said they didn’t know or preferred not to answer.
Still, 65 per cent of those surveyed said the plan to spend $8.5 billion on housing, aimed at building 3.9 million homes by 2031, is good for the country.
Leger’s poll of 1,522 Canadians last weekend can’t be assigned a margin of error because online surveys are not considered truly random samples.
People in Alberta were most likely to say they had a very negative impression of the budget, with 42 per cent selecting that option compared to 25 per cent across the entire country.
More than half of the people who took the poll said they are in favour of the government’s plans to spend more on energy efficiency, national defence and student-loan forgiveness for health care and education workers.
And 56 per cent said they think the increase to the capital gains tax inclusion rate — a move that’s estimated to raise another $19.4 billion in revenue over the next four years — is a good thing.
The Liberals are billing the change as critical to their plan to improve generational fairness by taxing the ultra-rich.
It has drawn criticism, including from the Canadian Medical Association, which warned on Tuesday that it could affect the country’s ability to recruit and keep physicians.
The budget proposes to make two-thirds of capital gains — the profit made on the sale of assets — taxable, rather than half. For individuals, this would apply to profits above $250,000, but there is no lower threshold for corporations.
The medical association said many doctors will face higher taxes because they have incorporated their practices and used those companies to save for retirement.
While the Liberals are aiming changes to the capital gains tax at younger Canadians including millennials and gen-Zers, Leger’s poll found it had the support of 60 per cent of respondents over the age of 55 — the highest among any age group.
People between 18 and 35 were least likely to support the Liberal plan to spend another $73 billion on defence in the next two decades. Just 45 per cent of respondents in that age group said ramping up defence spending is good for the country, compared with 70 per cent of people over the age of 55.
Leger also asked questions about the country’s fiscal future.
Almost half the respondents, 47 per cent, said they want to see the government cut back on spending and programs to get the budget balanced as quickly as possible.
Just 16 per cent said spending more and running large deficits is the best plan for the next five years, and 14 per cent want to see the government increase taxes to bring the deficit down.
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Alberta’s health ministry says an audit has determined that more than 40 medical clinics in the province are advertising membership fees for services, nearly a year after one such plan landed a Calgary clinic in hot water.
The audit was launched last December. In July, CBC News reported that a medical clinic in Calgary’s Marda Loop district was moving to a membership system and planned to charge $4,800 a year for a two-parent family membership, covering two adults and their dependent children.
The next day, Health Canada said the arrangement at the Marda Loop Medical Clinic equated to patients purchasing “preferential access” and warned Alberta that it could face cuts to federal health transfers if the situation wasn’t handled.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange directed Alberta Health to investigate, and the clinic halted its plan for membership fees shortly after.
In December, LaGrange told CBC News that “appropriate action” would be taken if audits determined that violations were found, adding the province would do whatever it took to ensure clinics were in compliance.
The province promised the audits early in the new year. Now, the health ministry says it has conducted interviews to gather information on operations and business models of the clinics, adding this work is ongoing.
“Over 40 clinics in the province [advertise] a membership meant to pay for a defined set of uninsured services, while also providing insured services covered under the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan at no cost to Albertans,” wrote spokesperson Andrea Smith in a statement.
“Once this review is completed, its findings will be used to inform next steps. Alberta’s government will also determine if additional audits of more membership clinics is required.”
In July, Health Canada said executive and primary health clinics charging patients enrolment and annual membership fees exist in a number of provinces. Generally, investigations have indicated that clinics provide members with an variety of uninsured services, such as life coaching and nutritional services.
“However, in some cases … these fees are also a prerequisite to accessing insured services at the clinic (i.e., medically necessary physician services). Mandatory fees to access or receive preferential access to insured services are contrary to the Canada Health Act,” the government department wrote in a statement.
A spokesperson for LaGrange told CBC News in July the ministry wasn’t aware of any other clinics offering services for membership fees that didn’t align with legislation.
What comes next for those 40 clinics is a murky grey area, said Fiona Clement, a professor at the University of Calgary in the department of community health sciences. Much of it has to do with the exact language being used when services are outlined as parts of packages.
“We’re on the razor’s edge of exact wording there that runs them afoul. Really, I think it will come down to what the government is willing to fight with these clinics about,” she said.
CBC News asked the provincial government for a list of the clinics identified, but did not receive it by publication time. A spokesperson with the province said if any clinics are found to be non-compliant with legislation, appropriate action would be taken.
Report had identified 14 clinics
Clement said the big issue that got the Marda Loop Medical Clinic in hot water was the concept of guaranteed access.
“That’s the problem that Marda Loop got into, because there you are charging access to medical care, which is the part that contravenes the Canada Health Act,” Clement said.
At the time the Marda Loop clinic fell under scrutiny, it was clear there were other such clinics providing membership programs, in Calgary and Canada.
In 2022, researchers from Dalhousie University and Simon Fraser University released a paper tracking the number of clinics taking private payment across the country. Between November 2019 and June 2020, the period of the analysis, there were 14 private clinics in Alberta with a range of membership fees and private payment.
“So, 40 is a larger number than I was expecting. And I think it speaks to growth in this area, the number of clinics that are charging fees for different parts of care,” Clement said.
“I think it underscores the lack of stability, and the need to really think about how we’re funding primary care, because more and more clinics are turning to this private charge as a revenue source to keep the doors open.”
Provinces that allow private health-care providers to charge patients for medically necessary services have dollars clawed back by the federal government under the Canada Health Act.
According to Health Canada, Alberta was subject to a $20,450,175 deduction to its Canada Health Transfer payment in March 2024 under the diagnostic services policy. That’s up from $13,781,152 last year.
But the province received $20,538,796 in partial reimbursements tied to its March 2023 and 2024 deductions, which represents actions that Alberta Health has taken to limit patient pay for publicly funded goods or services, according to Clement.
“I guess we’re making some progress. But it’s still a big number, which says there’s still a lot of patient billing going on,” she said.
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