Quebec has identified its first case of the B.1.617 variant of COVID-19 that originated in India and is believed to be fuelling the pandemic surge in that country.
The case was identified in a patient in the Mauricie region, north of Trois-Rivières, officials with the Institut national de la santé du Québec (INSPQ) confirmed Wednesday.
There is no such thing as a ‘double mutant’. This is shameless fearmongering.
Between April 1-17, 40 COVID-positive flights from Delhi landed in Canada — mostly in Toronto, but also many in Vancouver. This is on top of 26 flights from the U.S., 14 from the UAE, 11 from France, nine fromTurkey, and seven each from Germany, Qatar, and the Netherlands.
Flights from India continue to be Canada’s top source of international passengers testing positive for COVID-19.
And data provided by Health Canada reveals nearly all of the twice-daily flights between Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and Toronto Pearson Airport carried passengers infected with COVID-19.
Here:
Of the top 10 countries in the world on a doses per capita basis, six of them are using vaccines from Russia, China or India. Canada is 42nd in the world on a doses per capita basis according to Bloomberg News Service’s vaccine tracker. News reports and information from government websites show 16 of the countries ahead of Canada are using shots from one of those three countries.
While Western nations, including Canada, scramble to get doses for their citizens, the governments in Beijing, Moscow and New Delhi are shipping vaccine abroad to make new friends, even as their own national vaccination efforts lag behind the rest of the world.
This week, China’s ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, said his country always planned to help the world.
(Sidebar: what a lying sack of crap.)
“China stated in the early stages that once vaccines were developed and deployed they will become a global public good, so we are just honouring our commitment to help people, especially in developing countries,” he said. “We know the virus knows no borders.” …
Guy Saint-Jacques, a senior fellow at the University of Alberta’s China Institute and a former Canadian ambassador to Beijing, said China is clearly using the vaccines to help its image.
“This is part of their efforts to burnish their reputation abroad because they know that it has been tarnished with all the mistakes they made handling the pandemic and also they want to contrast themselves with Western countries,” he said.
On Monday, members of the Indian diaspora residing in Canada had organised a tiranga (tricolour) and Maple Car rally in Brampton to celebrate India-Canada ties. More than 100 cars had participated in the rally carrying flags of India and Canada on their vehicles.
Amidst all the positivity shown during the rally, the intrusion by pro-Khalistani elements became a significant problem as they not only abused the attendees and jammed traffic but also assaulted them for praising India. The car rally by the Indian diaspora did not go down well with pro-Khalistani supporters, who bullied people of Indian origin and abused them.
h/t Mauser98
Anita Anand, MP for Oakville and Minister of Public Services and Procurement, said in a tweet, “The AZ/CoviShield vaccine is now in Canada. The first tranche of 500,000 doses arrived this morning from Serum Institute of India with 1.5 million more doses to follow. Thank you to all whose hard work made this happen. We look forward to future collaboration.” She had earlier said that another 944,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be reaching Canada this week, of which 444,600 doses are of Pfizer and 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca.
In a village in the Indian Himalayas, generations of residents have believed that nuclear devices lie buried under the snow and rocks in the towering mountains above.
So when Raini got hit by a huge flood earlier in February, villagers panicked and rumours flew that the devices had “exploded” and triggered the deluge. In reality, scientists believe, a piece of broken glacier was responsible for the flooding in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, in which more than 50 people have died.
But tell that to the people of Raini – the farming mountain village with 250 households – and many don’t quite believe you. “We think that the devices could have played a role. How can a glacier simply break off in winter? We think the government should investigate and find the devices,” Sangram Singh Rawat, the headman of Raini, told me.
PM Trudeau, who made a telephone call to the prime minister, said that if the world managed to conquer COVID-19, it would be significantly because of India’s tremendous pharmaceutical capacity and PM Modi’s leadership in sharing this capacity with the world, according to a Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) statement.
Trudeau govt wakes up to death threat to PM Modi, provides security to top Indian diplomats
The Trudeau government last Friday instructed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to provide protection to the Indian embassies in Ottawa and Vancouver after external affairs minister S Jaishankar spoke to his Canadian counterpart Marc Garneau on February 5.
Remember this? Terror reports to reference ideology, not religions after ‘Sikh extremism’ criticism: Goodale
Friday evening, hours before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to visit one of the biggest Sikh temples in Canada, his government agreed to change the language in a report on terror to no longer explicitly mention Sikh extremism.
Delhi Police has filed a case of sedition against unknown persons in connection with toolkit tweeted by Greta Thunberg to mobilise protesters in support of agitating farmers.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently spoke out in support of farmers protesting in India, further damaging international relations between Canada and the world’s largest democracy. India has suggested Trudeau was encouraging “extremist activities,” with the nation now set to skip a Canada-led coronavirus summit following the prime minister’s remarks.
Meanwhile, back in Trudeau’s “home and native land” protesters and churchgoers have been fined across the country, one of the most recent incidents involving a drive-in ceremony held by a Mennonite church in Steinbach, Manitoba where thousands of dollars in fines were dished out.
…The Indian foreign ministry said in a statement that comments on “issues relating to Indian farmers constitute an unacceptable interference in our internal affairs.”
India and Canada have warm ties, but in recent years there has been concern in India that some Sikh leaders in Canada have ties to separatist groups hostile to India.
Canada is home to an influential Sikh community and Indian leaders say there are some fringe groups there that are still sympathetic to the cause of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan, carved out of India.
