The RCMP has charged the organizer of a pro-Trump rally in Red Deer for breaking the Alberta government’s lockdown orders.
“China eats weird animals disease”
Quebec’s COVID-19 curfew challenged by health experts, advocates
Government should address sites of outbreaks instead of stripping away freedoms, Ligue des droits says.
Covid alarmism has done more harm than good
Journalists seem to think it is their job to terrorise the public on behalf of the government.
Broadcast journalists are utterly apocalyptic about Covid-19. They are very good at delivering negative news and government justifications for lockdown. But we rarely hear about positive developments or reasons to question our collective house arrest.
Quebec’s COVID-19 curfew challenged by health experts, advocates
Quebec has become the first province to institute a curfew as part of new restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, but already its legality and effectiveness are being questioned by both health experts and civil liberties groups.
Starting Saturday, anybody caught outside between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. without a valid reason could face a fine of up to $6,000.
Premier François Legault said the curfew was part of a “shock therapy” designed to ease the burden on the health-care system that has worsened along with the pandemic.
Chinese doctor calls the nation’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine ‘the most unsafe in the world with SEVENTY-THREE side effects’
A Chinese doctor has caused controversy after calling the country’s COVID-19 vaccine ‘the most unsafe in the world’.
Dr Tao Lina, a vaccine expert from Shanghai, pointed out to his 4.8million social media followers on Tuesday that the jab developed by Beijing’s state-run drugmaker Sinopharm had 73 side effects.
After his remarks were widely reported outside mainland China, the medical worker today denied having criticised the vaccine and denounced foreign media outlets for ‘twisting’ and ‘exploiting’ his words.
Senior bureaucrat overseeing border and travel health accepted Air Canada junket to Jamaica
A senior public servant at the Public Health Agency of Canada accepted an all-expenses-paid holiday to Jamaica courtesy of Air Canada Vacations in November, even as her agency has been advising Canadians since March to avoid non-essential travel to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Dominique Baker, the acting manager at the agency’s Office of Border and Travel Health, flew with a friend to the upscale, all-inclusive Royalton Blue Waters resort in Montego Bay in mid-November.
Ms. Baker, who bills herself as a social, fashion and travel influencer on her off-work hours, posted a video a few hours after she arrived in Jamaica, calling the hotel suite with its own infinity pool “mind-blowing – whoa.”
No one in government gets fired.
Ontario reports 3,519 new Covid cases
Ontario is reporting 3,519 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 65,800 tests completed. Locally, there are 891 new cases in Toronto, 568 in Peel, 457 in York Region, 208 in Windsor-Essex County, 175 in Waterloo and 174 in Durham.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 7, 2021
Quebec to impose ‘electroshock’ curfew for 4 weeks, starting Saturday
Warning that the pandemic in Quebec has again reached a “critical and grave” juncture, Premier François Legault on Wednesday announced a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. for four weeks, starting on Saturday, to curb the rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Will Ontario follow suit?
GOLDSTEIN: Politicians have lost the moral authority to lead in a pandemic
With the public’s faith in politicians undermined by the “rules for thee, but not for me” mentality of those who fled the country during the Christmas break — while their governments told us to stay in our homes — Canada’s political class faces a serious challenge.
How far can the political leaders of rule-breaking politicians push law-abiding citizens to follow pandemic lockdown rules which seem increasingly arbitrary, nonsensical and unfair.
Federal prisoners in Canada will start being vaccinated against COVID-19 starting this week
Around 1,200 doses will be delivered across the country, and in total 600 inmates will be vaccinated. At this time it’s not clear which institutions will be receiving the vaccines.
‘We Simply Desire to Worship Our Lord’: Canadian Church Fined for Holding In-Person Worship Service
A Canadian church was fined for a second time due to holding an in-person worship service, despite orders banning large gatherings during the pandemic.
Lap Dances, Karaoke, Late Hours: The Speakeasies of the Covid Era
In Brooklyn, investigators arrived at a bar in December to discover exotic dancers giving lap dances to patrons behind a locked door as music blared, state officials said.
At a karaoke bar in Queens, officers found eight rooms filled with people and a manager, none wearing a mask. Just three days earlier, police had discovered a nearly identical scene at the same spot.
And at a locked-up lounge in the Bronx, investigators slipped in through a side door and stumbled upon more than 50 people smoking hookah and not wearing face masks, officials said.
Olympic athletes should get priority access to coronavirus vaccines, IOC’s Dick Pound says
In order to safeguard the Tokyo Olympics, athletes must be given priority access to the coronavirus vaccine, says prominent International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound.
The longtime IOC official, who is Canadian, expressed confidence in the ability of the Olympics to proceed in July — when the delayed Summer Games are scheduled to begin — so long as athletes can jump to the front of the COVID-19 vaccine line.
Ford slams feds over pilot program that will start inoculating inmates with COVID-19 vaccine on Friday
Premier Doug Ford is slamming the federal government’s decision to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to some inmates before inoculating all long-term care home residents, as part of a pilot program starting this week.
Ford made the remarks on Wednesday during his first COVID-19 press conference of the year at Pearson Airport.
“Let’s not give the most dangerous criminals in our country the vaccine before we give it to our long-term care patients, most vulnerable and other elderly people,” Ford said.
COVID-19: Etches announces capacity limits for skating rinks, sledding hills; Ontario again records more than 3,000 cases
Ottawa’s medical officer of health will be issuing a class order under the Health Protection and Promotion Act aimed at outdoor recreational spaces that will outline requirements around signage, physical distancing, and maximum capacity limits in common gathering areas, after large crowds were observed at skating rinks, tobogganing hills and skiing trailheads, “raising concern for me that we need to decrease that crowding,” said Dr. Vera Etches.
U.S. Is Blind to Contagious New Virus Variant, Scientists Warn
With no robust system to identify genetic variations of the coronavirus, experts warn that the United States is woefully ill-equipped to track a dangerous new mutant, leaving health officials blind as they try to combat the grave threat.
The variant, which is now surging in Britain and burdening its hospitals with new cases, is rare for now in the United States. But it has the potential to explode in the next few weeks, putting new pressures on American hospitals, some of which are already near the breaking point.
The United States has no large-scale, nationwide system for checking coronavirus genomes for new mutations, including the ones carried by the new variant. About 1.4 million people test positive for the virus each week, but researchers are only doing genome sequencing — a method that can definitively spot the new variant — on fewer than 3,000 of those weekly samples. And that work is done by a patchwork of academic, state and commercial laboratories.