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Trudeau thanks Biden for offering to expedite 1.5M vaccine doses to Canada – CTV News

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OTTAWA —
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is thanking U.S. President Joe Biden for his “collaboration,” in offering to send Canada 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in a dose-sharing deal that’s still being solidified.

“Vaccines are the path out of this pandemic,” Trudeau said during a press conference of Friday. “We are finalizing an agreement on this with the American administration as we speak.”

As officials on both sides of the border confirmed Thursday, if the deal is inked, it’ll see the United States send 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada by the end of the month, under a loan agreement.

“We are working closely and very well with the Biden administration on many fronts, including vaccines. I want to thank president Biden for his collaboration,” he said, adding that working to send Canada more vaccine doses is something he and Procurement Minister Anita Anand have raised with their Washington, D.C. counterparts “a number of times.”

“Canada and the U.S. are each other’s closest friends and most important allies. I know we’ll continue working to keep Canadians and Americans safe,” the prime minister said.

In an interview on CTV News Channel’s Power Play on Thursday, Anand said she is anticipating the doses will be arriving this month, meaning that by the end of March, Canada should have a total of 9.5 million doses, up from the previous projection of 8 million doses total.

The expectation is that as part of the agreement, Canada and Mexico would pay the U.S. back with doses in return, in the months ahead.

Joining Trudeau for his press conference, Anand said Friday the doses are expected to have a minimum shelf life of 60 days.

Once they arrive, it’s likely they’d be sent across the country and provided to existing locations where the AstraZeneca vaccine is being administered, such as pharmacies.

“We are finalizing those details and I will share them with Canadians as soon as we have them,” said the procurement minister.

In total, the U.S. is looking to send 4 million of what White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called “releasable” doses to Mexico and Canada, from a stockpile of 7 million doses.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but the regulatory agencies in Canada and Mexico have given it the green light, and Biden’s two North American neighbours have been pushing for more supply to immunize their populations quicker.

Speaking at a White House press briefing on Thursday, Psaki said the Biden administration’s priority remains ensuring the supply is there to vaccinate all American adults by the end of May, though that’s a target that country is set to be able to hit without doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

To date, the federal government has delivered more than 4.7 million vaccine doses to the provinces and territories, nearly 77 per cent of which have been administered, as the provinces continue to ramp up their rollout efforts.

In the months ahead, Canada will continue to receive larger shipments of vaccines in the push to immunize everyone who wants to be, by the end of September at the latest.

“Looking ahead, Canada is on track to receive a total of 36.5 million vaccines by the end of June, and 118 million doses by the end of September,” Anand said.

This plan has received several shots in the arms over the last few weeks after a sluggish start, with the latest update coming from Pfizer. That company is committed to sending more than a million doses every seven days through to the end of May.

Speaking to concerns raised by some provinces that certain coming shipments of the Moderna vaccine are being reduced, Anand said that because the coming deliveries include larger numbers of doses they are being divided into multiple deliveries but the total amount of doses going to each region will add up to the agreed-upon allocations in the end.

“Next week’s shipment of Moderna is a prime example. Rather than waiting until the end of the week to ship the entire order of 846,000 doses at once, it was decided to expedite the portion of the order that is ready, so that it arrives in Canada earlier,” she said.

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A linebacker at West Virginia State is fatally shot on the eve of a game against his old school

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.

The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.

Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.

West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.

Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.

“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”

Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.

West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.

“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”

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AP college football: and

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Hall of Famer Joe Schmidt, who helped Detroit Lions win 2 NFL titles, dies at 92

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DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.

The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.

One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.

“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”

Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.

“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”

Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.

Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.

In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.

“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”

Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.

Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.

Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.

“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”

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Coastal GasLink fined $590K by B.C. environment office over pipeline build

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VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.

The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.

It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.

The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.

Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.

The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.

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