If you want to avoid hefty fines or even prison time, it’s probably best to follow Canada’s quarantine rules if you decide to travel.
In a tweet shared on January 2, just days after officials promised to crack down on rule-breakers, Health Canada warned that “violating any instructions provided when you entered is an offence under the Quarantine Act.”
Per their notice, failing to quarantine for 14 days as directed could result in “up to six months in prison and/or $750,000 in fines.”
“2 new Republicans — including @mtgreenee — are being told by House floor staff that they have to put their masks on. as of now, they seem to be telling the floor staff that they will not put it on. Taylor Greene is leaving the floor with the other R, who were trying to ID,” Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman tweeted Sunday.
“Now, the Republiacn (sic) and Democratic floor staff are in a screaming match on the floor. So this Congress is going great already,” he added.
Former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb on Sunday predicted that the contagious, new strain of COVID-19 will account for the “majority” of cases in the US by March.
“There are some estimates that the new variant probably represents about 1 percent of all infections in this country. By March, it’s going to be the majority of infections,” Gottlieb said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Gottlieb said it will “grow quickly” and its arrival adds more pressure to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are distributed as soon as possible.
One of America’s most senior government officials says the most ‘credible’ theory about the origin of coronavirus is that it escaped from a laboratory in China.
Matthew Pottinger, who is President Donald Trump’s respected Deputy National Security Adviser, told politicians from around the world that even China’s leaders now openly admit their previous claims that the virus originated in a Wuhan market are false.
Mr Pottinger said that the latest intelligence points to the virus leaking from the top-secret Wuhan Institute of Virology, 11 miles from the market, saying: ‘There is a growing body of evidence that the lab is likely the most credible source of the virus.’
Ontario is reporting 2,964 cases of #COVID19 and over 49,800 tests completed. Locally, there are 786 new cases in Toronto, 346 in Peel, 308 in York Region, 197 in Durham and 187 in Windsor-Essex County.
Today’s numbers will be available at 10:30 a.m. at https://t.co/ypmgZbVRvn.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 3, 2021
Government could change rules after outcry over aid for quarantining vacationers
MONTREAL — A federal cabinet minister hinted that changes could be coming to the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit after an outcry over aid money being given to vacationers who left Canada despite public health recommendations.
On Saturday, Employment and Social Development Minister Carla Qualtrough suggested changes are coming in a statement posted to Twitter.
“The Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit was never intended to incentivize or encourage Canadians to not follow public health or international travel guidelines,” the statement read. “We continue to strongly urge Canadians to avoid non-essential travel.”
???
Mental illness is not to be trifled with. pic.twitter.com/AxGRzvzgT5
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 3, 2021
The German government has come out against giving those who have received the coronavirus vaccine special rights and privileges. But the business incentive could take the decision out of their hands.
Just 24 hours into the European Union’s continentwide rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine, leading physicians and politicians are arguing over its moral and societal implications.
Frank Ulrich Montgomery, current president of the World Medical Association, and Thomas Mertens, virologist and head of Germany’s Standing Commission on Vaccination (STIKO), have suggested that people who have been immunized against COVID-19 could one day use a vaccine “passport” to get access to flights, restaurants, concerts, and cinemas.
Gatineau police issue fines, arrest two during confrontation over private gathering on New Year’s Eve
… In a pair of tweets Saturday, Gatineau police (SPVG) said the video, which had more than 133,000 views on Twitter as of Saturday afternoon, is only part of the story and alleged that one of the people involved assaulted an officer.
“The video shows only an excerpt from the intervention,” the SPVG said in French. “The individuals were recalcitrant and refused to cooperate. The individual arrested in the video had assaulted a police officer, hitting him in the face a few times.”
I dunno, maybe you shouldn’t have broken into their home?
Il faut que ça devienne viral. RT en masse les amis. La lumière doit être fait sur cet événement. pic.twitter.com/nnxsGcQcOn
— Nusakan le récalcitrant (@Nusakan007) January 1, 2021
While Canadians have been forced to obediently follow coronavirus public health regulations, politicians have willfully ignored those same rules without consequence.
The difference is we get fined and or arrested, politicians don’t. I wonder how many politicos have warehoused their elderly in one of Ontario’s death trap old age homes?
Scores of people protest conditions at Tendercare after 60 deaths due to COVID-19
Scores of people protested outside a Scarborough long-term care home on Saturday to draw attention to conditions inside the facility where 60 residents have died of COVID-19.
Tendercare Living Centre, 1020 McNicoll Ave., has lost 60 residents to the novel coronavirus as of Saturday, according to North York General Hospital (NYGH). The provincial government asked NYGH on Dec. 25 to help the home manage its COVID-19 outbreak for 90 days.
Just when you thought that 2021 would see the U.S. and the world return to pre-COVID-19 ‘normal,’ here comes another government bureaucrat to slam that door shut.
CBC News reported on New Years’ Eve that Allard, the rookie UCP MLA for Grande Prairie, visited Hawaii on a family vacation earlier in December. She was out of the province from December 19 to December 26.
TORONTO — An expanding list of Canadian politicians are in hot water after being caught vacationing or travelling abroad amid a worsening COVID-19 pandemic at home.
Current federal public health guidance says to avoid all non-essential travel outside of Canada, something Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and health authorities have repeatedly reiterated in public briefings.
LONDON (AP) — With daily coronavirus infections surging as a result of a new virus variant, the British government faced mounting pressure Saturday from teachers’ unions to keep schools in England closed for at least another two weeks.
The government, which oversees schools in England, has already decided to keep all schools in London closed next week to try to stem new infections. Unions want the policy extended across the whole of England, expressing fears about the health of both teachers and children.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department fully mobilized the agency’s “Super-Spreader Task Force” on New Year’s Eve to target underground parties that violated public health orders.
According to FOX 11, the operations resulted “in at least 900 people being detained, 90 arrests and/or citations, and the recovery of at least six guns.”
2. Some employers will provide employees with a choice. Return to work or continue to work remotely but with a 30 per cent cut in salary (or any amount the employer selects). If the employee has the option of coming to the office at the same remuneration, there is nothing illegal, nor is it a constructive dismissal for employers to offer this alternative.
Interesting how the pandemic has made things “easier” for the corporate class.
We’ve heard repeatedly during the past year that until mass vaccination is achieved, the key to managing the Covid-19 epidemic is controlling human behaviour. Yet as cases in the UK continue to spiral, with stricter social restrictions being implemented every few days, a key question remains: is anyone complying any more?
Compliance has been one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented concepts of this pandemic. During the first wave of the virus back in the spring, there was concern that a lengthy lockdown would lead to “behavioural fatigue” and diminishing compliance with social restrictions. In fact, “behavioural fatigue” was not a scientific concept but a political one, neither supported by research from previous epidemics nor by data that subsequently emerged from our lockdown (over 97% showed good compliance with the rules, with no meaningful decrease from March to May). During emergencies, humans are actually primed to act in the collective interest, as we saw from the sacrifices made by people in the spring of 2020 across the UK.
