A girl wearing a mask and 2021 headband looks on at a shopping mall in Bangkok on Thursday ahead of the start of the new year. Countdown celebrations and crowded events were banned amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)
Ontario’s finance minister resigns after returning from Caribbean vacation
Earlier Thursday morning, upon arrival at Toronto’s Pearson airport, Phillips said he would like to keep his job amid calls for his resignation but would respect Ford’s decision following what the premier said would be a “very tough conversation” between the two.
“Today, following my conversation with Rod Phillips, I have accepted his resignation as Ontario’s minister of finance,” Ford said in a statement. “At a time when the people of Ontario have sacrificed so much, today’s resignation is a demonstration that our government takes seriously our obligation to hold ourselves to a higher standard.”
Ford said he has asked Peter Bethlenfalvy to assume the role of minister of finance and deliver the government’s 2021 budget. He said this appointment will “help ensure economic stability in the months ahead, as we support Ontario families, workers and businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic, and as we chart our path to long-term economic recovery.”
Soon after Ford’s announcement, Phillips’s office also issued a statement confirming his resignation as minister of finance. “Travelling over the holidays was the wrong decision, and I once again offer my unreserved apology,” Phillips wrote in the statement. He will remain a member of the provincial legislature, representing the riding of Ajax.
Phillips was in Saint Barthélemy, popularly known as St. Barts, since Dec.13 and will quarantine in Ajax for 14 days starting Thursday. He said earlier this week he chose to go ahead with the trip not knowing the province would be placed under lockdown on Boxing Day.
Days after he had departed on his trip, Phillips’s office posted a series of tweets for the minister that could arguably give the impression he was home for the holidays. The posts included a video of Phillips sitting next to a fireplace, thanking Ontarians for protecting the most vulnerable and a previously taken photo of him holding local maple syrup to celebrate National Maple Syrup Day.
In response to this, Phillips said Thursday it is not out of the norm to schedule tweets ahead of time, especially for politicians like himself. “Most politicians pre-program and pre-record a lot of their social media content. I did that to promote Ajax businesses, to promote the COVID-19 supports that we have for small businesses across the province and to wish my constituents a holiday greeting,” he said. “That said, I understand in the circumstances why it seemed insincere. I apologize for that.”
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Businesses in Dildo, N.L., were hoping for a tourist boom in 2020 after being featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live! But while the pandemic put a damper on plans for this year, there’s still hope for the future. 2:06
IN BRIEF
Ontario and Quebec break records for new COVID-19 cases
Ontario and Quebec reported record-high COVID-19 case numbers again on Thursday, with Ontario becoming the first province in the country to report more than 3,000 cases in a single day.
Ontario reported 3,328 new infections and 56 additional deaths, bringing the provincial death toll to 4,530. According to data released by the province, COVID-19 hospitalizations stood at 1,235, with 337 patients in intensive care — both also new records.
Ontario hospitals continue to warn that intensive care units are reaching maximum capacity and threatening to overwhelm the wider health-care system. In a statement to CBC Toronto on Wednesday, Anthony Dale, CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association, said, “Do not celebrate the holidays with people outside your own household. It would be the ultimate tragedy if the worst consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic happened just as vaccines arrived on Canadian soil.”
Quebec, meanwhile, reported 2,819 new cases and 62 additional deaths, for a total of 8,226 deaths since the start of the pandemic. Hospitalizations stood at 1,175 with 165 people in the province’s ICUs, according to a provincial dashboard.
New Quebec government modelling indicates that hospitals in the province’s largest metropolitan area, Greater Montreal, are getting perilously full and could run out of capacity for new COVID-19 patients entirely in as little as two or three weeks.
Coronavirus outbreak hits Quebec’s first vaccination site, but it doesn’t mean the vaccine is ineffective, say officials
On Dec. 11, as the Quebec City health region was preparing to administer the first Canadian doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, two residents at the CHSLD Saint-Antoine tested positive for coronavirus. The next day, 15 more did. The people affected were from a single unit and were quickly isolated.
Officials had planned to inoculate the facility’s 230 or so residents partly to test whether the vaccine could inhibit the virus’s spread in an extended-care facility where it wasn’t already present. It now appears that by Dec. 14, the day the first shots were administered, it was too late. More than 80 people at the centre, including 66 residents, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since receiving the first of two vaccine doses.
However, a spokesperson for the local health authority said positive tests and resulting cases of COVID-19 were always likely. According to the evidence from clinical trials, it can take up to two weeks to achieve 50 per cent immunity, and a second dose is required after 21 days to reach 95 per cent. Residents and staff will begin receiving their second dose of the serum beginning Jan. 4.
“We expected there could be more cases among staff and residents who are vaccinated, because they’ve only had one dose of the vaccine,” Mélanie Otis said in an email. According to the health region, 202 residents took the vaccine, along with 125 staff. It seems likely several of them were already infected with the coronavirus when they received the shot, Otis indicated.
In any case, immune responses aren’t typically instantaneous, Dr. Jacques Girard, the medical adviser to Quebec City’s chief public health officer, told Radio-Canada’s Première Heure. “When we give someone a vaccine it’s to protect them,” he said, but he cautioned that it often takes a couple of weeks to develop sufficient antibodies to stave off the virus, meaning that as of this week there should be signs the outbreak at CHSLD Saint-Antoine is starting to recede.
Vancouver party host spends Christmas in jail after repeated fines for violating COVID-19 public health orders
A 24-year-old Vancouver man spent Christmas night in jail after repeatedly hosting parties that violated COVID-19 public health orders. Police say they issued multiple warnings and fines to the man before arresting him on Dec. 25 and charging him under Section 99 of the provincial Public Health Act. He was released on Boxing Day.
“Clearly the talks that we were having with him weren’t having the desired effect,” said Sgt. Steve Addison. “This should serve as a reminder to anyone who thinks it’s still OK to ignore the public health order and put other people at risk.”
Addison said the Vancouver Police Department has received a dozen complaints about noise and parties at the man’s downtown apartment since September. He was twice issued $2,300 violation tickets in December. After another loud party on Dec. 18, Vancouver police worked with Crown counsel to obtain an arrest warrant.
The provincial COVID-19 Related Measures Act bans social gatherings of any size inside residences, but allows people who live alone to host two people with whom they regularly socialize.
With the recent announcement that Health Canada has approved Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, the second being made available to the public, Canadians are likely wondering when it will be their turn to get inoculated.
But with the country in the first phase of vaccine rollout, that’s still unclear, with much depending on what they do and where they live. CBC News has put together an explainer here to answer some questions you may have.
As for the issue at hand: There’s not enough information yet to know whether people who have previously tested positive for COVID-19 would need the vaccine for immunology, said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease doctor in Toronto and a member of Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution task force.
However, reports of people getting reinfected with COVID-19 as soon as four months after recovering from their previous infection suggest that most people who have recovered from COVID-19 will be eligible for vaccination.
AND FINALLY…
B.C. mom describes ‘surreal experience’ meeting new son after waking up from coma related to COVID-19
Gillian McIntosh and her husband, Dave, celebrate Christmas at home in Abbotsford, B.C., with their two children. She was discharged from hospital on Dec. 24 after spending a month in an induced coma because of COVID-19 complications. (Submitted by the McIntosh family)
A British Columbia mom who gave birth while in an induced coma because of COVID-19 says she was released from hospital just in time to spend Christmas at home with her family.
Gillian McIntosh’s new son, Travis Len, was delivered by emergency C-section in early November after she was admitted to Abbotsford Regional Hospital because of complications related to the novel coronavirus. She was unconscious and on a ventilator when the baby made his first appearance and didn’t meet him until mid-December, when she was eased out of her coma.
In a written statement released Wednesday, McIntosh said she was discharged from hospital on Christmas Eve. She said the opportunity to spend the holidays with her two children and husband, Dave, was “one of the best gifts I have ever received.”
“It’s a very surreal experience to wake from a month-long coma, when the last thing I remember was going to the emergency department having trouble breathing and texting my husband that they were going to keep me in for a few days,” she said. “Waking up, no longer pregnant, but to know our sweet baby boy joined the world and was healthy was such a relief and blessing.”
According to Wednesday’s statement, McIntosh has recovered from her illness more quickly than expected, but the full extent of the damage to her lungs is still unknown, and it’s not certain how long it will take them to heal. She required daily physiotherapy in the hospital to relearn how to walk, and she still needs to use a walker, cane and other mobility aids to get around the house.
Gillian and Dave McIntosh also expressed their gratitude to those who have reached out to offer thoughts, prayers and donations as well as the workers at Abbotsford Regional Hospital. “It takes special people to be able to keep doing what our health-care workers have been doing for so long,” said Dave McIntosh.
Skinstitut Holiday Gift Kits take the stress out of gifting
Toronto, October 31, 2024 – Beauty gifts are at the top of holiday wish lists this year, and Laser Clinics Canada, a leader in advanced beauty treatments and skincare, is taking the pressure out of seasonal shopping. Today, Laser Clincs Canada announces the arrival of its 2024 Holiday Gift Kits, courtesy of Skinstitut, the exclusive skincare line of Laser Clinics Group.
In time for the busy shopping season, the limited-edition Holiday Gifts Kits are available in Laser Clinics locations in the GTA and Ottawa. Clinics are conveniently located in popular shopping centers, including Hillcrest Mall, Square One, CF Sherway Gardens, Scarborough Town Centre, Rideau Centre, Union Station and CF Markville. These limited-edition Kits are available on a first come, first served basis.
“These kits combine our best-selling products, bundled to address the most relevant skin concerns we’re seeing among our clients,” says Christina Ho, Senior Brand & LAM Manager at Laser Clinics Canada. “With several price points available, the kits offer excellent value and suit a variety of gift-giving needs, from those new to cosmeceuticals to those looking to level up their skincare routine. What’s more, these kits are priced with a savings of up to 33 per cent so gift givers can save during the holiday season.
There are two kits to select from, each designed to address key skin concerns and each with a unique theme — Brightening Basics and Hydration Heroes.
Brightening Basics is a mix of everyday essentials for glowing skin for all skin types. The bundle comes in a sleek pink, reusable case and includes three full-sized products: 200ml gentle cleanser, 50ml Moisture Defence (normal skin) and 30ml1% Hyaluronic Complex Serum. The Brightening Basics kit is available at $129, a saving of 33 per cent.
Hydration Heroes is a mix of hydration essentials and active heroes that cater to a wide variety of clients. A perfect stocking stuffer, this bundle includes four deluxe products: Moisture 15 15 ml Defence for normal skin, 10 ml 1% Hyaluronic Complex Serum, 10 ml Retinol Serum and 50 ml Expert Squalane Cleansing Oil. The kit retails at $59.
In addition to the 2024 Holiday Gifts Kits, gift givers can easily add a Laser Clinic Canada gift card to the mix. Offering flexibility, recipients can choose from a wide range of treatments offered by Laser Clinics Canada, or they can expand their collection of exclusive Skinstitut products.
Brightening Basics 2024 Holiday Gift Kit by Skinstitut, available exclusively at Laser Clincs Canada clinics and online at skinstitut.ca.
Hydration Heroes 2024 Holiday Gift Kit by Skinstitut – available exclusively at Laser Clincs Canada clinics and online at skinstitut.ca.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
The Canadian Paediatric Society says doctors should regularly screen children for reading difficulties and dyslexia, calling low literacy a “serious public health concern” that can increase the risk of other problems including anxiety, low self-esteem and behavioural issues, with lifelong consequences.
New guidance issued Wednesday says family doctors, nurses, pediatricians and other medical professionals who care for school-aged kids are in a unique position to help struggling readers access educational and specialty supports, noting that identifying problems early couldhelp kids sooner — when it’s more effective — as well as reveal other possible learning or developmental issues.
The 10 recommendations include regular screening for kids aged four to seven, especially if they belong to groups at higher risk of low literacy, including newcomers to Canada, racialized Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. The society says this can be done in a two-to-three-minute office-based assessment.
Other tips encourage doctors to look for conditions often seen among poor readers such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; to advocate for early literacy training for pediatric and family medicine residents; to liaise with schools on behalf of families seeking help; and to push provincial and territorial education ministries to integrate evidence-based phonics instruction into curriculums, starting in kindergarten.
Dr. Scott McLeod, one of the authors and chair of the society’s mental health and developmental disabilities committee, said a key goal is to catch kids who may be falling through the cracks and to better connect families to resources, including quicker targeted help from schools.
“Collaboration in this area is so key because we need to move away from the silos of: everything educational must exist within the educational portfolio,” McLeod said in an interview from Calgary, where he is a developmental pediatrician at Alberta Children’s Hospital.
“Reading, yes, it’s education, but it’s also health because we know that literacy impacts health. So I think that a statement like this opens the window to say: Yes, parents can come to their health-care provider to get advice, get recommendations, hopefully start a collaboration with school teachers.”
McLeod noted that pediatricians already look for signs of low literacy in young children by way of a commonly used tool known as the Rourke Baby Record, which offers a checklist of key topics, such as nutrition and developmental benchmarks, to cover in a well-child appointment.
But he said questions about reading could be “a standing item” in checkups and he hoped the society’s statement to medical professionals who care for children “enhances their confidence in being a strong advocate for the child” while spurring partnerships with others involved in a child’s life such as teachers and psychologists.
The guidance said pediatricians also play a key role in detecting and monitoring conditions that often coexist with difficulty reading such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but McLeod noted that getting such specific diagnoses typically involves a referral to a specialist, during which time a child continues to struggle.
He also acknowledged that some schools can be slow to act without a specific diagnosis from a specialist, and even then a child may end up on a wait list for school interventions.
“Evidence-based reading instruction shouldn’t have to wait for some of that access to specialized assessments to occur,” he said.
“My hope is that (by) having an existing statement or document written by the Canadian Paediatric Society … we’re able to skip a few steps or have some of the early interventions present,” he said.
McLeod added that obtaining specific assessments from medical specialists is “definitely beneficial and advantageous” to know where a child is at, “but having that sort of clear, thorough assessment shouldn’t be a barrier to intervention starting.”
McLeod said the society was partly spurred to act by 2022’s “Right to Read Inquiry Report” from the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which made 157 recommendations to address inequities related to reading instruction in that province.
He called the new guidelines “a big reminder” to pediatric providers, family doctors, school teachers and psychologists of the importance of literacy.
“Early identification of reading difficulty can truly change the trajectory of a child’s life.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.
