Ontario’s chief medical officer of health is “strongly recommending” that Ontarians wear masks in all indoor public settings, including in schools and in childcare settings, but stopped short of recommending a return to a mask mandate in the province.
At a news conference on Monday, Dr. Kieran Moore said the province’s health system is facing “extraordinary pressures” with the ongoing circulation of COVID-19, the earlier than normal rise in Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), as well as influenza.
“What we are facing is a triple threat that requires our collective action and action to protect the most vulnerable in our communities, the very young, the very old and those with underlying medical issues and to ensure that our healthcare system remains able to care for Ontarians when they need it,” Moore said.
As children’s hospitals across Ontario battle against rising RSV, COVID-19 and flu cases, the province’s top doctor is recommending Ontarians get back to using protective measures including self-screening for symptoms and wearing masks in indoor public settings.
Moore said Ontarians need to get back to using all the layers of protection that have proven to work over the course of the pandemic.
“We should all be screening daily for signs of illness and stay home when you are sick,” he said.
“I’m asking Ontarians, especially children six months of age and older, pregnant individuals, families and caregivers with young children, health-care workers and elderly, and those with underlying health conditions to get your flu shot as soon as possible, [to] protect themselves and those around them,” Moore added.
Unprecedented surge of sick children
The recommendation to mask up comes as pediatric hospitals across Ontario have been dealing with an unprecedented surge of sick children in recent weeks.
Moore said children aged two to five should only wear a mask with supervision if they can safely tolerate masking, and can put it on and take it off.
Moore has previously said this fall and winter would see a resurgence of respiratory illnesses and that he would recommend masking in certain indoor settings if hospitals began cancelling surgeries to deal with a surge of patients.
“The difficult and complex fall that was predicted has materialized,” Moore said Monday.
“COVID-19, influenza and RSV — all three are actively circulating across Ontario in all of our communities … contributing to the pressures on our pediatric health-care system.”
Medical officials have also been increasingly calling for the public to mask up after children’s hospitals across the province became overwhelmed with young patients in emergency departments, pediatric wards and intensive care units.
On Friday the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto announced it would be ramping down surgeries to redeploy staff to those areas.
SickKids chief executive officer Dr. Ronald Cohn said the cancellation of surgeries is a big blow to children, their families and health-care workers.
“It is heartbreaking for the families and the children because, you know, the term ‘elective surgery’ doesn’t really exist in children,” Cohn told CBC Toronto, adding it’s about finding the right time to schedule and perform the surgery.
“It’s also incredibly morally distressing for all of us as health-care professionals, recognizing that we actually cannot do these procedures for the children, knowing that they need them,” said Cohn.
Dr. Chris Simpson, executive vice-president, medical, at Ontario Health, left, and Dr. Moore, right, held a news conference Monday. (Clara Pasieka/CBC)
Dr. Chris Simpson, executive vice-president, medical, at Ontario Health, also spoke at Monday’s news conference. He said that “unusually high numbers of children are coming into hospital emergency departments” for one or more viral illnesses, and the total number of these children that require admission is “uncommonly high.”
Simpson said while Ontario hospitals have been preparing for “this triple threat,” they are seeing high numbers of seriously ill children and seeing them earlier in the season than had been expected.
“Although this current situation is unlike anything we’ve seen in the pediatric population in recent memory, we have strong systems and structures that have been put in place during the pandemic for our adult community,” Simpson said.
On Sunday Premier Doug Ford urged Ontarians to ‘Wear a mask every time possible.’ ( Robert Krbavac/CBC News)
Meanwhile, speaking at a news conference on Sunday, an unrelated issue, Premier Doug Ford urged members of the public to get their flu shots and be up to date on the COVID-19 vaccinations.
“Wear a mask every time possible,” Ford said.
Ford did not answer repeated questions Sunday about whether his government would be mandating masks in any settings.
“I’m going to follow Dr. Moore’s direction,” Ford said, a line he repeated several times when pressed on the issue.
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.
