At the start of the week, TVO.org provides a primer on stories in Ontario politics making news now.
Here’s what we’ve got our eye on:
Queen’s Park key words:
Vaccine mandates: Ontario is ending mandatory vaccination and testing policies in schools, hospitals, and long-term-care homes on Monday.
Inquiry: The chair of Ontario’s expert panel on SARS and infectious-disease control told CBC News he thinks inquiries into what went wrong in Ontario and Canada during the pandemic are inevitable. Ontario’s opposition parties say they want a wide inquiry, with the Liberals and NDP mentioning a public one. The Ontario government did not tell CBC whether it wants a wider inquiry than the COVID-19 commission it launched early in the pandemic.
Addictions services: Michael Tibollo, associate minister of mental health and addictions, announced new funding for addictions-otreatment supports in Thunder Bay on Monday. The province says the funding will go to expanding access to treatment in and around Thunder Bay.
Beyond the Pink Palace:
Federal Conservative leadership: On Sunday, Brampton mayor Patrick Brown officially launched a bid to become the next leader of the federal Conservative party. Brown has held positions at the local, provincial, and federal levels and says he would grow and unite the party as leader. In 2018, he resigned as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives after he was accused of sexual misconduct in a CTV News article. He denied the allegations and recently settled a defamation suit with the network. For TVO.org, Steve Paikin writes that article likely cost Brown the chance of becoming premier.
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Jerry Dias: Labour leader Jerry Dias is stepping down from heading Canada’s largest private-sector union, Unifor, due to health issues.
Read and watch on TVO.org this week:
Fewer public-health measures: The Agenda With Steve Paikin looks at Ontario’s lifting of mask, vaccine, and isolation mandates. Then, it takes on the issue of masking in schools and asks what ending masking means for vulnerable Ontarians.
Internet gambling: The Agenda also examines whether the province’s internet-gaming model might be an industry game-changer.
Healthcare harassment: Read more first-person stories from front-line health-care workers on TVO.org this week. As Ontario Hubs journalists Charnel Anderson and Justin Chandler said on The Agenda Friday, workers have been sharing their stories of harassment and how they want the system to change. The latest: why a northern Ontario nurse left the profession.
