An infection control epidemiologist who publicly warned in July that New Brunswick was courting a COVID-19 outbreak by dropping public health restrictions too early doesn’t accept the province’s claims that its current health crisis could not be forecast.
“It was absolutely, absolutely abundantly clear in July that what they were doing was fundamentally wrong,” said Colin Furness, an associate professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
“I’m getting sick and tired of government officials saying, ‘This was unforeseen, this was unpredictable, no one could have anticipated this.’ You can’t improve your performance or decision-making if you can’t be honest with yourself about the nature of mistakes.”
On Friday, during briefings to announce and explain the reintroduction of a provincial state of emergency and mandatory order to deal with a surging COVID-19 outbreak, New Brunswick political and health officials acknowledged the decision to lift public health restrictions at the end of July was a mistake. But they suggested they couldn’t have known the mistake they were making.
“Absolutely, all of us in this room right now, with the evidence of this rapid increase of delta virus in the province, would all agree that was not the right decision to make,” said Dr. Gordon Dow, an infectious disease expert with Horizon Health.
“But that’s with the benefit of in retrospect.”
Premier Blaine Higgs also agreed Friday that the July 30 reopening “could” have been an error. But he insisted danger signs were not apparent at the time.
“I have to reiterate that the decision we made at the time was based on the facts available and the situation our province was in, and how we would go forward. It’s always easy to look back,” he said
Vaccination rates among those under 40 in New Brunswick were below 50 per cent in late July when the province announced the ending of public health restrictions. (Rozenn Nicolle/CBC)
New Brunswick is in the middle of its largest COVID-19 outbreak of the pandemic. It has recorded more than 1,400 new cases since lifting public health restrictions in July, including 470 for the week ending last Friday.
That was the highest case count per capita in any province east of Saskatchewan for the week and has put sudden pressure on the province’s hospital system.
Furness claims that deterioration was predictable.
He said it was clear in July that New Brunswick did not have enough people fully vaccinated, especially among the young, to protect itself from an outbreak of COVID-19’s highly contagious delta variant.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in New Brunswick reached a record 33 on Sunday. Concern over rising cases overwhelming the province’s health-care system led to a state of emergency being reinstated on the weekend. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)
He believed at the time of New Brunswick’s July reopening that public health protections like mandatory indoor masking needed to be maintained to protect against what is happening now, and said so publicly.
“There was tonnes of data available, concurrent data available about what delta was doing,” said Furness
On July 23, Higgs announced the province would be dropping all public health restrictions at midnight on July 30 even though it had not reached its goal of having 75 per cent of the eligible population fully vaccinated.
At the time of the announcement, 64 per cent of those in the province over the age of 12 had received two vaccine doses.
That was problematic enough, according to Furness, but made riskier because the majority of vaccinations were concentrated in higher age groups.
Dr. Theresa Tam is Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Among those under 40, just 48 per cent had been fully vaccinated at the time reopening was announced. On July 27, Furness said in an interview with CBC that New Brunswick was heading for trouble if it did not at least maintain rules requiring mask use indoors.
“People in their 80s are not serving tables in restaurants, they’re not working as grocery store clerks and they’re not going to heavy-duty parties. It’s the ones in their 20s who are. And that group is not protected,” he said
Furness was not alone in those concerns.
On July 30, just hours before New Brunswick dropped all of its mandatory public health restrictions, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Officer of Health, recommended against abandoning masking rules until vaccination rates among the young improved.
“We have to be cautious about how we reopen,” Tam said in a national briefing about a detected rise in the delta variant in Canada that she said would soon assert itself “in every jurisdiction.”
Colin Furness, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, warned New Brunswick in July that it was courting a COVID-19 outbreak by dropping public health restrictions before raising its vaccination rates. (CBC)
“If the 18 to 39-year-olds can get vaccinated fully up to at least 80 per cent you can actually avert significant impacts on the health system.”
She said any province dropping public health restrictions risked having its hospital system overrun “if the vaccine rate going up is not as fast as the relaxation of measures.”
“Delta is a formidable foe,” said Tam. “We know what works. Continue masking, distancing.”
In July, the number of those fully vaccinated in New Brunswick between the ages of 18 and 39 was well short of the 80 per cent level Tam said was required to fend off the worst of a “delta driven” wave and is still below 70 per cent.
Furness said he finds excuses now that warnings were not clear enough in July are not credible.
“When you looked at the contagiousness of delta, you didn’t even need to know about vaccine effectiveness. Just looking at the spread pattern, just looking at the contagiousness, there was no way that [safely opening] was valid knowledge back then. Flat out no way.”
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. says it has signed a deal that will result in the creation of its first eyewear collection.
The deal announced on Thursday by the Toronto-based luxury apparel company comes in the form of an exclusive, long-term global licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear Inc.
The terms and value of the agreement were not disclosed, but Marchon produces eyewear for brands including Lacoste, Nike, Calvin Klein, Ferragamo, Longchamp and Zeiss.
Marchon plans to roll out both sunglasses and optical wear under the Canada Goose name next spring, starting in North America.
Canada Goose says the eyewear will be sold through optical retailers, department stores, Canada Goose shops and its website.
Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss told The Canadian Press in August that he envisioned his company eventually expanding into eyewear and luggage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Masrani, who will retire officially on April 10, 2025, says the bank’s, “anti-money laundering challenges,” took place on his watch and he takes full responsibility.
The bank named Raymond Chun, TD’s group head, Canadian personal banking, as his successor.
As part of a transition plan, Chun will become chief operating officer on Nov. 1 before taking over the top job when Masrani steps down at the bank’s annual meeting next year.
TD also announced that Riaz Ahmed, group head, wholesale banking and president and CEO of TD Securities, will retire at the end of January 2025.
TD has taken billions in charges related to ongoing U.S. investigations into the failure of its anti-money laundering program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
