The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada (all times eastern):
7:45 p.m.
An Alberta energy company says three positives cases of the Brazilian COVID-19 variant have been linked to its employees.
PTW Energy Services says in a statement that the infections were detected in its offices in Drayton Valley, Edson and Hinton.
It says it is working closely with health officials to monitor the situation.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw has said it’s believed an outbreak of about 26 cases linked to the variant started with a traveller returning to Alberta from out of province.
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7:10 p.m.
Health officials in B.C. are reporting 999 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday and 890 cases on Monday, for a total of 1,889 new cases over the past two days.
The province says 23 people have died from complications linked to the virus since last Thursday.
There are 8,490 active cases in the province, of which 318 people are in hospital, with 96 in intensive care.
B.C. also reported 916 new confirmed cases that are variants of concern, for a total of 3,559 cases that have been confirmed to date, including 2,771 of the variant first identified in the United Kingdom and 737 of the strain originally detected in Brazil.
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6:20 p.m.
Health officials in the Northwest Territories say one person was infected with COVID-19 recently due to international travel.
The Office of the Chief Public Health Officer says the person is from Yellowknife.
The territory says contact tracing has not identified any risk to the public.
It says the person and three other contacts are self-isolating and doing well.
Health officials say the case will be counted in the territory’s COVID-19 statistics Tuesday.
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5:40 p.m.
Alberta has identified 887 new daily cases of COVID-19 and 432 more involving variants.
Nearly 40 per cent of active cases are now variants.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw says on Twitter that she’s concerned about the rising number of cases, including variants, in recent days.
There are currently 4,145 active cases of variants in the province.
There are 312 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 76 in intensive care.
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5:35 p.m.
Alberta’s top doctor says an outbreak of the COVID-19 variant first found in Brazil appears to be linked to a large employer with multiple sites across Western Canada.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw says on Twitter that it’s believed it started with a traveller returning to Alberta from out of province.
She says the spread has been confined to three work sites in the central and north zones in which employees travelled between locations.
Some 26 cases have been linked to those sites and to household contacts.
Hinshaw says so far, three of those infections are confirmed to be the Brazilian variant, adding that’s likely to increase as more results come in.
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4:30 p.m.
Saskatchewan is reporting 219 new COVID-19 cases and one additional death.
The province’s daily pandemic update says 86 new cases involving variants of concern have been identified.
The update also notes that a hotel and bar in a central Saskatchewan village has been issued a stiff fine for failing to follow COVID-19 restrictions.
It says the Milden Hotel and Bar was fined $14,000 for failure to comply with the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan.
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3:50 p.m.
Ottawa’s chief medical officer is asking the Ontario government to implement further restrictions, including a provincewide stay-at-home order.
Dr. Vera Etches says in a series of tweets that the province isn’t dealing with the same virus from one year ago. The virus has changed, she says, and so must our behaviours.
She points to stricter lockdowns in other countries that have helped control transmission.
She writes on Twitter that vaccines are here, but communities need more time and more doses for vaccination efforts to have a real impact.
Etches also says her team is in the process of reviewing COVID-19 data to determine what approach the national capital should take with schools.
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2:20 p.m.
Peel Region’s top doctor says he has ordered all schools to be closed.
Dr. Lawrence Loh says he is ordering schools in the southern Ontario region, including Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga, to close starting tomorrow.
The schools will move to online learning only and will remain closed until April 18.
Loh says the closure will allow students and staff at least two weeks out of schools to break any chains of transmission and protect them from exposure.
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1:35 p.m.
Manitoba is reporting 135 new COVID-19 cases and two deaths over the last two days.
The current five-day test positivity rate is 5.1 per cent provincially and 4.3 per cent in Winnipeg.
The province says some 7,200 vaccination appointments set for Monday to Thursday of next week will have to be rescheduled.
It says a delay in supplies of the Moderna vaccine will affect appointments at so-called “pop-up” sites.
The sites are temporary vaccination clinics set up in smaller communities across the province, including Steinbach, Portage la Prairie, Dauphin and Swan River.
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1:05 p.m.
Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting no new COVID-19 cases today.
Health officials in the province haven’t reported a new infection since April 1.
The province has four active reported cases.
It has reported a total of 1,020 COVID-19 infections and four deaths linked to the virus.
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12 p.m.
New Brunswick is reporting 10 new cases of COVID-19 today.
Health officials say seven cases in the Moncton region are under investigation.
They say three cases in the Edmundston area involve contacts of a previously reported infection.
New Brunswick has 168 active reported COVID-19 cases and 14 people in hospital with the disease, including eight in intensive care.
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11:45 a.m.
Toronto Mayor John Tory says the city is working on a plan to vaccinate high-risk people at their places of work.
Tory said today the plan would involve mobile vaccination units that are already being used in some hard-hit neighbourhoods.
He says the federal and provincial governments should work together to improve the paid sick day program to help workers stay home and isolate.
The Ontario government has said it will not duplicate the paid sick leave program run by the federal government.
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11 a.m.
Quebec is reporting 1,252 new cases of COVID-19 today and four more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, including one in the past 24 hours.
Health officials say hospitalizations rose by one, to 503, and 123 people were in intensive care, a drop of five.
The province says it administered 22,494 doses of vaccine Sunday, for a total of 1,552,215.
Quebec has reported a total of 317,364 COVID-19 infections and 10,697 deaths linked to the virus; it has 10,271 active reported infections.
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10:45 a.m.
Nova Scotia is reporting three new cases of COVID-19 today in the Halifax area.
Health officials say one case is related to travel outside Atlantic Canada, one involves a contact of a previously reported infection, and one is under investigation.
Nova Scotia has 32 active reported infections.
The province says it had administered 113,471 doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of Sunday, with 29,532 people having received a booster shot.
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10:40 a.m.
Ontario says it has had nearly 6,000 new COVID-19 cases over a two-day span.
The province is reporting 2,938 new cases of COVID-19 today and 3,041 cases for Sunday.
Data sharing was paused in Ontario on Sunday for the Easter holiday.
Ten deaths were linked to the virus on today’s report and 12 on Sunday’s update.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2021.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Alaska man accused of sending graphic threats to injure and kill six Supreme Court justices and some of their family members has been indicted on federal charges, authorities said Thursday.
Panos Anastasiou, 76, is accused of sending more than 465 messages through a public court website, including graphic threats of assassination and torture coupled with racist and homophobic rhetoric.
The indictment does not specify which justices Anastasiou targeted, but Attorney General Merrick Garland said he made the graphic threats as retaliation for decisions he disagreed with.
“Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families,” he said.
Anastasiou has been indicted on 22 counts, including nine counts of making threats against a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce.
He was released from detention late Thursday by a federal magistrate in Anchorage with a a list of conditions, including that he not directly or indirectly contact any of the six Supreme Court justices he allegedly threatened or any of their family members.
During the hearing that lasted more than hour, Magistrate Kyle Reardon noted some of the messages Anastasiou allegedly sent between March 2023 and mid-July 2024, including calling for the assassination of two of the Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices so the current Democratic president could appoint their successors.
Instead of toning down his rhetoric after receiving a visit from FBI agents last year, Anastasiou increased the frequency of his messages and their vitriolic language, Reardon said.
Gray-haired and shackled at the ankles above his salmon-colored plastic slippers, Anastasiou wore a yellow prison outfit with ACC printed in black on the back, the initials for the Anchorage Correctional Facility, at the hearing. Born in Greece, he moved to Anchorage 67 years ago. Reardon allowed him to contact his elected officials on other matters like global warming, but said the messages must be reviewed by his lawyers.
Defense attorney Jane Imholte noted Anastasiou is a Vietnam veteran who is undergoing treatment for throat cancer and has no financial means other than his Social Security benefits.
She told the judge that Anastaiou, who signed his own name to the emails, worried about his pets while being detained. She said he only wanted to return home to care for his dogs, Freddie, Buddy and Cutie Pie.
He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for each count of making threats against a federal judge and up to five years for each count of making threats in interstate commerce if convicted.
Threats targeting federal judges overall have more than doubled in recent years amid a surge of similar violent messages directed at public officials around the country, the U.S. Marshals Service previously said.
In 2022, shortly after the leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, a man was stopped near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh with weapons and zip ties.
ROME (AP) — Canadian and Italian dignitaries on Thursday marked the successful recovery of a photo portrait of Winston Churchill known as “The Roaring Lion,” stolen in Canada and recovered in Italy after a two-year search by police.
At a ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Rome, Italian carabinieri police handed over the portrait to the Canadian ambassador to Italy, Elissa Goldberg, who praised the cooperation between Italian and Canadian investigators that led to the recovery.
The 1941 portrait of the British leader taken by Ottawa photographer Yousuf Karsh is now ready for the last step of its journey home to the Fairmont Château Laurier, the hotel in Ottawa where it was stolen and will once again be displayed as a notable historic portrait.
Canadian police said the portrait was stolen from the hotel sometime between Christmas 2021 and Jan. 6, 2022, and replaced with a forgery. The swap was only uncovered months later, in August, when a hotel worker noticed the frame was not hung properly and looked different than the others.
Nicola Cassinelli, a lawyer in Genoa, Italy, purchased the portrait in May 2022 at an online Sotheby’s auction for 5,292 British pounds. He says he got a phone call from the auction house that October advising him not to sell or otherwise transfer the portrait due to an investigation into the Ottawa theft.
Cassinelli, who attended Thursday’s ceremony, said he thought he was buying a regular print and quickly agreed to send the iconic Churchill photograph home when he learned its true story.
“I immediately decided to return it to the Chateau Laurier, because I think that if Karsh donated it to the hotel, it means he really wanted it to stay there, for the particular significance this hotel had for him, and for his wife too,” Cassinelli told The Associated Press.
The famous image was taken by Karsh during Churchill’s wartime visit to the Canadian Parliament in December 1941. It helped launch Karsh’s career, who photographed some of the 20th century’s most famed icons, including Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein and Queen Elizabeth.
Karsh and his wife Estrellita gifted an original signed print to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in 1998. The couple had lived and operated a studio inside the hotel for nearly two decades.
Geneviève Dumas, general manager of the Fairmont Château Laurier, said on Thursday she felt immensely grateful.
“I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to everybody involved in solving this case, and ensuring the safe return of this priceless piece of history.”
Police arrested a 43-year-old man from Powassan, Ontario, in April and have charged him with stealing and trafficking the portrait. The man, whose name is protected by a publication ban, faces charges that include forgery, theft over $5,000 and trafficking in property obtained by crime exceeding $5,000.
CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed the United States in part on Thursday for the surge in cartel violence terrorizing the northern state of Sinaloa which has left at least 30 people dead in the past week.
Two warring factions of the Sinaloa cartel have clashed in the state capital of Culiacan in what appears to be a fight for power since two of its leaders were arrested in the United States in late July. Teams of gunmen have shot at each other and the security forces.
Meanwhile, dead bodies continued to pop up around the city. On one busy street corner, cars drove by pools of the blood leading to a body in a car mechanic shop, while heavily armed police in black masks loaded up another body stretched out on a side street of the Sinaloan city.
Asked at his morning briefing if the U.S. government was “jointly responsible” for this violence in Sinaloa, the president said, “Yes, of course … for having carried out this operation.”
The recent surge in cartel warfare had been expected after Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, landed near El Paso, Texas on July 25 in a small plane with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Zambada was the cartel’s elder figure and reclusive leader. After his arrest, he said in a letter circulated by his lawyer that he had been abducted by the younger Guzmán and taken to the U.S. against his will.
On Thursday afternoon, another military operation covered the north of Culiacan with military and circling helicopters.
Traffic was heavy in Culiacan and most schools were open, even though parents were still not sending their children to classes. Businesses continue to close early and few people venture out after dark. While the city has slowly reopened and soldiers patrol the streets, many families continue to hide away, with parents and teachers fearing they’ll be caught in the crossfire.
“Where is the security for our children, for ourselves too, for all citizens? It’s so dangerous here, you don’t want to go outside,” one Culiacan mother told the Associated Press.
The mother, who didn’t want to share her name out of fear of the cartels, said that while some schools have recently reopened, she hasn’t allowed her daughter to go for two weeks. She said she was scared to do so after armed men stopped a taxi they were traveling in on their way home, terrifying her child.
During his morning press briefing, López Obrador had claimed American authorities “carried out that operation” to capture Zambada and that “it was totally illegal, and agents from the Department of Justice were waiting for Mr. Mayo.”
“If we are now facing instability and clashes in Sinaloa, it is because they (the American government) made that decision,” he said.
He added that there “cannot be a cooperative relationship if they take unilateral decisions” like this. Mexican prosecutors have said they were considering bringing treason charges against those involved in the plan to nab Zambada.
He was echoed by President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who said later in the day that “we can never accept that there is no communication or collaboration.”
It’s the latest escalation of tensions in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Last month, the Mexican president said he was putting relations with the U.S. and Canadian embassies “on pause” after ambassadors criticized his controversial plan to overhaul Mexico’s judiciary by requiring all judges to stand for election.
Still, the Zambada capture has fueled criticisms of López Obrador, who has throughout his administration refused to confront cartels in a strategy he refers to as “hugs not bullets.” On previous occasions, he falsely stated that cartels respect Mexican citizens and largely fight amongst themselves.
While the president, who is set to leave office at the end of the month, has promised his plan would reduce cartel violence, such clashes continue to plague Mexico. Cartels employ an increasing array of tactics, including roadside bombs or IEDs, trenches, home-made armored vehicles and bomb-dropping drones.
