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This GTA neighbourhood has a staggering rate of COVID-19 infections. Families are struggling, and essential workers are scared. Inside the ‘perfect storm in Peel’

Aug 20, 2021 , , , , by shlf

At the northeast corner of Queen Street East and Airport Road in Brampton begins a large stretch of multi-sized warehouses, factories and shops. On any given day, the movement of small and large trucks loading or unloading is about the only observable activity in the area, save for occasional construction work. It’s kilometres in either direction before you reach residential parts of the neighbourhood, a mixture of multi-unit housing buildings and stand-alone or semi-detached homes.

This is the part of the Greater Toronto Area that has emerged as the place most affected by .

Last week, the Star reported that the : that is to say, nearly one in five residents being tested for the virus receive a positive result, based on analysis conducted by non-profit research institute ICES. Peel Region as a whole has a positivity rate of 9.8 per cent, the highest in the GTA.

For residents of this neighbourhood, it is regrettable that some people’s behaviour may have contributed to the increase in positivity rates, but they say a big part of why the coronavirus is running rampant here stems from external factors beyond their control.

Take Robbie Singh, for example. The 28-year-old tow truck driver, who has lived in this part of Brampton his entire life, says that unlike many others whose jobs allow them the luxury to work from home or take paid time off, he hasn’t stopped working, even during the lockdown months at the beginning of the pandemic.

In addition to observing health measures at work — always wearing a mask, washing hands and sanitizing — he has to regularly book testing appointments to ensure his own safety and that of his family.

“I mean, someone has to do the job,” said Singh as he left the testing site at Gore Meadows Community Centre last week.

“It’s scary, because in Brampton, almost everyone is an essential worker and we get out all the time, which exposes us to the virus more than other people in other places.”

Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, says the rate of spread in the region has been foreseeable since March.

“You’ve got a perfect storm in Peel,” he said.

There’s a large population of immigrants, crowded households, and poorly paid employees engaged in precarious yet essential work, all of which makes the region more vulnerable, he said.

In Brampton, industries including manufacturing, retail, transportation and warehousing, and hospitality accounted for 43 per cent of residents’ jobs, according to data from the 2016 census. These are industries that have been deemed essential and often do not allow people the chance to work from home.

“Ontario has been managing COVID like a political problem, rather than a public health problem,” Furness said, noting that outbreaks in places such as long-term-care homes are politically “embarrassing” and were addressed quickly and vocally by the province.

“Migrant farm workers, homeless people … racialized communities — people don’t seem to care about (them) so much, so they just haven’t gotten resources,” Furness said. “COVID is a racist problem … It’s layers of tragedy here.”

Before going on maternity leave earlier this year, Racine Grenaway worked in retail at Canadian Tire. Her husband works in a food processing factory in Toronto, and the family decided that he would stay with a cousin in town rather than travel home every day and risk infecting her or their three children. She also has multiple sclerosis, and it’s been difficult for her to go get her medications.

Now she has another major worry: her two school-aged kids, 11 and seven years old, have to get tested after an outbreak at their school forced it to shut down. There were recently at Holy Spirit Catholic Elementary School.

“If you ask me, the kids shouldn’t have been in school to begin with,” she said. “I mean, they pulled them out of school back in March. The situation is much worse now, right?”

Grenaway decried a lack of resources in the neighbourhood to help people in need. She said there aren’t enough walk-in clinics despite a growing population. Even getting a COVID-19 test appointment can take days, she said.

“People need to watch their behaviour more, but I think our community also gets left out and ignored by government a lot,” Grenaway said.

As a pharmacist in the area, Khalid Bhatti has seen the impact of COVID-19 on essential workers in this neighbourhood first-hand. The number of his own patients who test positive has been increasing steadily for the past few weeks. That rise has more to do with the nature of their jobs than with ignorance of safety measures, he said.

“They are out there every day, keeping the economic engine going,” said Bhatti, who noted the vast majority of his clients are truck drivers and people working in logistics, retail and restaurants.

There are many complicating factors that account for why this part of Brampton is particularly hard hit by COVID-19, Bhatti said.

Many people live in poverty and earn a low wage, even while they risk their lives to go to work. There are a lot of rental properties and rooming houses in the area for students as well as multi-generational families, and this creates more density than other areas, he said.

Language barriers compound things. Many residents in the area are recent immigrants whose first language may not be English. In addition, the messages coming from different levels of government keep changing and it can be confusing for people to know what to do.

Bhatti gave the example of Education Minister Stephen Lecce, who last week said the government might extend winter break for students, only to reverse this the very next day.

“The back-and-forth, every day, does not help,” said Bhatti. Governments need to be co-ordinated and consistent in what they tell the public, he said.

“I, as a pharmacist, am getting confused by the messaging. I can only imagine what it’s like for people who have English as their second or third language, which predominantly this area has.”

To curb the spread of the virus, the government should be providing incentives for testing, Furness said. If tests come back positive, people should be given access to — plans are underway in Peel for these — and money to cover lost wages and groceries for their families for the time they need to quarantine.

Furness adds that public health units should employ people who share an identity and language with the community they will be working in.

The few people who don’t respect safety measures cause a lot of pain to those just trying to survive the pandemic.

In the parking lot across from a community service centre near Williams Parkway and Airport Road, Georgina Kuaninoo, a longtime resident, says it breaks her heart to hear stories of police breaking up large parties.

“Why 100 people are getting together to party in this pandemic, I don’t understand,” she said. Kuaninoo has, on several occasions, yelled at people not wearing masks in public, or at those not observing a proper distance from one another.

“I haven’t seen my grandkids in a long time, and it’s tough. We only speak on the phone,” she said.

“This thing is spreading like fire and everybody is going to die if we don’t pay attention.”

Angelyn Francis is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering equity and inequality. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email:

Gilbert Ngabo is a Star breaking news reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter:

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The pandemic exposed huge gaps in EI — turns out the parental leave system has many of the same problems

Aug 20, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The year 2020 is proof the best laid plans can go wrong. Just ask Shantae Cunningham.

The self-employed, Toronto-based owner of an accounting firm had everything laid out: she was going to voluntarily pay into the Employment Insurance program throughout 2020 so she could access parental benefits come 2021, when she started a family.

Then COVID-19 happened.

“I had a whole plan … and then that was sort of cut right at the knees in March,” said Cunningham.

When the pandemic hit, Cunningham lost about 90 per cent of her client base. Around the same time, she discovered she was pregnant.

Instead of getting parental leave, Cunningham had to dip into her savings before the baby was born at the same time she refocused her business.

“My entire pregnancy I stressed about money,” she said.

Now, with her baby boy just weeks old, Cunningham is giving herself as much leave as she can; she’s taking a few months off of some clients, while continuing to work with others. She even worked the day after her child was born.

If she were eligible for parental benefits, Cunningham would have taken a full leave. But that’s not an option.

“It’s scary for me, especially as a freelancer. I just want to see some residual money coming in.”

Cunningham worked at an accounting firm before starting her own business, but the years she spent paying into the EI program don’t count toward her parental leave because she’s been self-employed for two years.

She says the EI program needs to change to accommodate the growing number of freelancers, gig workers, entrepreneurs, and self-employed.

“Essentially, we’ve been left out,” she said.

After COVID-19 made it clear the EI system needed to change, the federal government hinted it would work toward bringing the program up to speed. The program is currently being bolstered by temporary changes meant to include more people affected by the pandemic, reducing the number of hours needed to qualify and boosting the wage replacement rate.

In the long run, experts say parental benefits need to be easier to access, offer higher rates, and incentivize both parents to take leave.

Dana Wray, a PhD student at the University of Toronto studying social, work and family policies, said COVID-19 has exposed existing inequalities in the federal parental benefit system, deployed under EI.

Just like EI itself, it’s contingent on employment — a specific kind of employment, meaning people with precarious, low-income, or contract jobs often don’t qualify.

“It ends up just furthering some of the inequalities based on gender, social class or race, or intersections of those,” she said.

In the longer term, this will make it even harder for women, especially women of colour, to re-enter the job market, Wray said.

Canada Research Chair in gender, work and care Andrea Doucet said before the pandemic, around 35 per cent of women in Canada outside Quebec were unable to access parental leave (she noted this data excludes the territories and First Nations, a gap she said needs to be addressed).

“A lot of people pay into it … and then don’t benefit from it,” she said.

Sophie Mathieu, a post-doctoral fellow at the Université TÉLUQ who researches the Quebec parental leave system, said there are three aspects that need to change: accessibility, rate and the structure of paternity leave. These are all aspects where Quebec, which is known for its subsidized child-care program and parental benefits, is leading, she said.

Access to parental leave in Quebec requires the parent to make just $2,000 during the qualifying period, the equivalent of 153 minimum-wage hours, Mathieu said — and contract, gig and self-employed workers are eligible. Secondly, parents in Quebec receive between 55 per cent and 75 per cent of their income, up to a maximum insurable earnings of $78,500. By comparison, the federal EI system offers up to 55 per cent of a maximum insurable earnings of $52,400.

With the economic recovery in mind, Brock University associate professor of sociology and associate dean of social sciences Kate Bezanson said it’s time to act quickly so that women aren’t left behind.

“I think that the easiest fix is to take the Quebec model … and adopt that for the rest of Canada,” she said.

In addition to eligibility and rate, Mathieu said Quebec’s approach to leave for the father, or second parent, makes those parents much more likely to take parental leave. Every parental leave plan includes a “use it or lose it” additional leave for the father or second parent of three to five weeks, which is not dependent on the eligibility of the other parent. The federal program’s additional five-to-eight-week Parental Sharing Benefit, however, is dependent on both parents’ EI eligibility. That’s why while Quebec sees a high rate of fathers using this leave, the federal benefit has a much lower uptake, she said.

As well, Wray said the low wage replacement rate of federal parental benefits makes fathers or second parents less likely to apply, preferring instead to keep working.

“I worry if more women are forced out of the labour force or forced into lower income or precarious work, that that financial logic will be even harder to get around,” she said. “Fathers will be less willing or less able to take time to spend with their children in their first year through parental leave if they feel they can’t afford it.”

Experts also say that parental benefits should be considered a care policy, not just an employment policy, more tightly integrating them with other policies such as child care (the federal government has promised a national child-care strategy).

Doucet said if parental leave is always tied to employment, it will always leave out some people.

“If we’re going to have an inclusive system, that would mean actually thinking a little bit wider outside of the employment relationship,” she said.

Bezanson said it’s about having more coordination between different areas of policy so that child care and parental leave are thought of as complementary family policies. During the pandemic she’s seen more coordination between different policy jurisdictions than before.

“I think that’s a good moment for us to harness that energy and make the kind of bold policy decisions that need to get made,” she said.

This is part two of an ongoing series looking at the pandemic’s devastating effect on women in the workforce.

Rosa Saba is a Calgary-based business reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

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Can algorithms be biased or harmful? Yes, here’s how

Aug 19, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Algorithms have changed modern society for the better in a number of ways, through advances in technology, optimized experiences online and so much more.

But what happens when the algorithm that gets built ends up doing more harm than good? At what point can an algorithm fail?

READ MORE: 

We asked experts to weigh in on algorithm bias and just how much control a data scientist actually has over their own creation. 

How can algorithms be biased or harmful?

When comparing two effective algorithms that are producing results for big tech companies, there’s really no such thing as a good or bad algorithm.

It’s more complicated than that.

The algorithm itself is an objective tool to get from a problem to a solution. It’s typically built by computer or data scientists to learn from certain data sets and then work to solve a specific problem.

The quality of the data set affects the outcome. This means that if the data is biased, so is the algorithm, even if the algorithm itself may be producing the intended result, said Stephen Chen, associate professor of information technology at York University.

A few years back, he noted, that was filtering out women by learning from a data set of resumes that reflected a male-dominated industry. Based on the input, the algorithm had “learned” that male candidates were best suited for the job. 

“If you have skewed data on the input, you will basically reinforce your bias,” he said. 

Chen said the same can be said for discrimination in racialized communities, using U.S. health care predictions as an example. 

“If racialized people have less access to health care, then all the AI algorithms will predict less access to health care,” he continued. “It codifies past discrimination.”

In addition to perpetuating biases and discrimination, algorithms also have the power to predict certain behaviours or circumstances that can also hurt specific groups of people, said Salma Karray, a marketing professor at Ontario Tech University.

For example, Karray explained, there was a case in the U.S. in 2012 involving Target that sparked privacy concerns after the retailer used an algorithm to  and sent her a maternity pamphlet in the mail, before her father found out.

As well, she said, an algorithm can also potentially encourage addictive behaviours, such as gambling, by targeting users who appear interested in a certain activity online. 

Can algorithms be controlled?

A self-accelerating vehicle speeds up at the wrong time and kills its driver. This is a real-life example of an algorithm gone wrong, Chen said. 

But from a results perspective, this machine’s algorithm technically learned what it was expected to learn: how to automatically drive a vehicle.

“There’s nothing more dangerous than assuming your code works because it gives you the result you were expecting,” Chen said.

He said there’s something in machine intelligence that is different from human intelligence, and that is something that we, as humans, may never understand. 

“If the machines have a different form of intelligence and do things differently, and receive things and understand things differently, then if we give control to the algorithms, to something that we don’t fully understand, do we have control over them still?” he asked.

“Once you train an algorithm to learn outside of the lab, you no longer have any idea what it’s doing because it has learned something that you did not know it was going to learn. Then it can do things that nobody was expecting.” 

What are the ethics behind algorithms?

While there is on algorithms to make them smarter and better at making decisions, Chen said there is a lack of ethics in the process as a whole, which is more of a historical problem in science in general.

“It’s like, let’s build the bomb first and then talk about the ethical implications about nuclear power after, right?” he said.

Chen said that when it comes to regulations, there is some more robust privacy legislation that has emerged recently in certain parts of the world around big tech companies (such as the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU); however, it is difficult to regulate algorithms.

“It’s really hard to say that you are not allowed to be exposed to an algorithm because the algorithms – they track everything,” he said. “Data is the cost of connectivity.” 

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ATM may have been “tampered with” during ​early morning fire in Elmvale

Aug 18, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The Springwater Township Fire Department responded to a fire inside a business on Queen Street in Elmvale early this morning (Nov. 19). There were no injuries, states a media release from OPP Acting Sgt. Katy Viccary. 

The call came into the Huronia West OPP Detachment at approximately 5:10 a.m. OPP officers and firefighters arrived on scene and observed smoke billowing from within the building.

“A door to the premise was insecure, and it appears as though unknown suspect(s) had unlawfully entered the building prior to the fire. Initial investigation suggests that the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) may have been tampered with during the incident.” Viccary said. 

The Huronia West OPP Crime Unit, OPP Forensic Identification Services and the Ontario Fire Marshall were all notified of the fire.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the OPP at  or Crime Stoppers at . Calls to Crime Stoppers remain anonymous. You will never have to testify and you may be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2,000.

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Thomas Walkom: COVID-19 test results reveal two-tier health care in Ontario

Aug 12, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Ontario’s chaotic testing system has opened the door to two-tier health care.

Already, private clinics are in on the game, offering tests at between $50 and $250 for those with the wherewithal to pay out-of-pocket charges.

The incentive is a familiar one. By paying extra, private payers can skip the lineups that plague the public system. The danger is equally familiar. Access to necessary medical tests is no longer determined solely by need. Instead, it is biased in favour of the better-off.

The Globe and Mail, which first reported on this development, says that business at the private clinics is booming. And no wonder. In Ontario at least, public testing for the coronavirus has been confused and contradictory.

For a while, the provincial government talked of making testing widely available. Now, officials say, they want to focus on those most likely to be infected.

For a while, anyone wanting a test could line up at a public assessment centre. Now, testing is done by appointment only.

For a while, kids with runny noses had to be tested before being allowed to return to school or child care centres. Now, runny noses are OK. Testing is no longer required for children with mild symptoms.

Some (but not all) Ontario pharmacies offer free tests. But they offer them only to those who show no symptoms of COVID-19.

If you do show symptoms and want to be tested, you have to get through to a testing centre by phone or internet — not an easy task — and make an appointment.

Or you can pay a private clinic and avoid the wait.

Some argue that fee-charging private clinics ease the pressure on the beleaguered public system. If there were an infinite number of tests and labs to process them, that might be true. But in the real world, resources are limited.

If a lab is busy processing results from a private clinic, it is — by definition — unavailable to the public testing system.

Essentially, this was the argument made last month by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice John Steeves when he ruled that governments could constitutionally limit access to private health care in order to protect public medicare.

So far, government reaction to private testing has been muted. Federal Health Minister Patty Hadju has said she will look into the practice.

Under the Canada Health Act, the federal government has the power to financially punish provinces that allow private clinics to charge user fees.

Whether Ottawa is willing to use this power is another question. Politically, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government finds it convenient to get along with Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Trudeau may not want to rock the boat.

Moreover, any move by Ottawa against private testing might seem somewhat hypocritical. As a perk of office, federal MPs already have access to private COVID-19 testing services. Unlike their constituents, they need not stand in line or wait on hold.

Ontario, meanwhile, has been carefully noncommittal. Provincial Health Minister Christine Elliott says she has forbidden the sale of government swabs to private testers.

But she has not addressed the core issue — whether she will continue to let private clinics charge user fees for medically necessary services.

Given the state of play in Ontario, she may not want to be seen cutting testing of any type. Indeed, there may be a way to enlist the testing capacity of private clinics in a manner that is consistent with the principles of medicare.

But that’s not where we are headed now. Now we are on the familiar path toward two-tier health care, where those who can afford pay more, get more.

Thomas Walkom is a Toronto-based freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Reach him via email:

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Road closed in Clearview for crash investigation

Aug 12, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Emergency crews are on the scene of multi vehicle collision on Hwy 26 west of County Road 10.

Clearview Fire Chief Roree Payment Tweeted the road and weather conditions are poor, and motorists need to drive with care.

He noted Hwy. 26 was closed at this time. The initial call came in at 4:21 p.m.

Fire crews are leaving the scene.

To stay up to date on .


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Find luxurious pjs and underthings at Bliss Beneath in Barrie

Aug 11, 2021 , , , , by shlf

owner Tamara DiSaverio doesn’t care if you have something naughty or nice you want to give to yourself or a loved one for Christmas.

The Barrie lingerie shop owner knows whatever you purchase, ensuring it’s the right fit is key.

The store offers personalized service and private fittings by appointment, with a vast selection of bras, underwear, socks, pyjamas, swim wear and hats.

Items also come in many sizes in the boutique, because each body is unique. And comfort is key.

Gift cards are also available.

For more information, visit or call the store at .


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Project forging Pathways to Care for Black kids, youth in 6 Ontario cities

Aug 9, 2021 , , , , by shlf

An initiative aimed at improving the lives of Black children and youth across Ontario has completed eight months of research in Toronto and is now underway in five other cities throughout the province.

Pathways to Care is the result of a cross-sector collaboration between the Black Health Alliance, TAIBU Community Health Centre, the Wellesley Institute, the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH) and Strides Toronto.

Its mission is to increase access to mental health and addictions care for Black youth and children in Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, London and Windsor, and to build service providers’ capacity to provide culturally competent care.

To get there, researchers will sit down – virtually, through surveys and remote focus groups – with Black children, youth, adults and caretakers, as well as the organizations that provide services to Black children and youth, to identify gaps in access to services and learn how to bridge them.

Fatimah Jackson-Best, a public health researcher specializing in mental health, is in charge of the project.

“All of us want to see the progression, the amplification and the improvement of Black people’s lives and well-being and mental health. So that is the ultimate goal,” Jackson-Best said. “I’m just hoping this achieves moving the dial forward.”

According to the Black Canadians represent 18 per cent of people living in poverty in Canada despite representing only 2.9 per cent of the overall Canadian population. And immigrants from the Caribbean and Bermuda, as well as refugees from East Africa and South Asia, experience up to double the risk of psychotic disorders compared to the general population of Ontario, according to the .

“There’s messaging that everyone has mental health and we have to take care of it, and that messaging is absolutely correct,” Jackson-Best said. “But I would say that the messaging also needs to include that some people have factors that impact their mental health that are out of their control, like racism, discrimination, etcetera.”

By next year, the team behind Pathways hopes to deliver all the information they gathered back to the communities and stakeholders in each of their six target cities by producing a strategic framework, tailored for each city’s needs, that mental health and addiction service providers can use to deliver the best care to Black children and youth. They will also use local data to create interactive maps people in each city can use to find services close to them.

Despite the challenges of launching in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic – the first survey to service providers in the city went out the week the pandemic was declared – Jackson-Best said her team gathered a lot of valuable information and used the opportunity to fine-tune the research methods they’ll use in the remaining cities.

She said major events this year, such as the pandemic and the resurgence of public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, have also underscored the need for initiatives like Pathways to Care.

“The pandemic has really underscored just how much mental health challenges are affecting Black communities, due to a range of factors like poverty, income, class, privilege, etcetera,” she said. “All of those have become so much more pronounced through the pandemic.”

To learn more about Pathways to Care, visit .

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‘Unacceptable’: Union claims management didn’t do enough to prevent second outbreak at Simcoe Manor in Beeton

Aug 6, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The union that represents healthcare workers at Simcoe Manor in Beeton is accusing management of not doing enough to prevent the COVID-19 outbreak at the facility that has led to nearly 70 infections and nine deaths since it began on Oct. 2.

Sharlene Stewart, union president for SEIU Healthcare, which represents nearly 160 workers at the home, claims the County of Simcoe didn’t take proper precautions after a resident was hospitalized on Sept. 27.

“If this resident had enough symptoms to be taken to the hospital, I’m sure he was presumed to possibly be infected with the virus,” she said.

But according to Jane Sinclair, the general manager of health and emergency services for the County of Simcoe, which manages the 126-bed facility, the resident who was hospitalized on Sept. 27 was not presenting COVID-19 symptoms, and was released back to the home after he was assessed at the hospital.

While he was given a COVID-19 test that day, she said the hospital determined at the time his condition was not COVID-19 related.

“It was a non-COVID related diagnosis, so we took the appropriate steps based on the medical information we had at the time,” she said.

Sinclair said management was informed about his positive test result after the outbreak had already been declared on Oct. 2, which happened after another resident also tested positive.

The resident died from the virus on Oct. 3.

Stewart also lashed out at management for how the situation was communicated to staff, noting many found out on social media.

Sinclair said the home has “stringent processes” for how it shares the personal health information of its residents.

She said anyone who is in the circle of care, the staff members who are directly involved in caring for the person, were regularly advised about his condition, including the assessment that was done in hospital.

“We followed all of our normal communication processes to ensure that circle was updated and informed,” she said.

Sinclair said there has been even more communication between staff and families since the outbreak began, including weekly virtual town halls and daily huddles with staff.

“We are really focusing on communication with our staff because we know how important it is,” she said.

Stewart said there was also a problem regarding access to personal protective equipment (PPE), noting a staff member had to break into the storage area.

Sinclair confirmed that a nurse encountered a faulty lock, resulting in a member of the maintenance team having to break it open. But she said there have been no other issues with staff being able to access PPE.

Sinclair said the province has directed all homes to keep PPE secured and to keep close tabs on the gear to ensure it being used appropriately and an adequate supply is kept on hand.

The home has been under the management of Royal Victoria Hospital since the province ordered a temporary management order on Oct. 12.

Stewart was also concerned with outside agency workers coming to work in the home.

Sinclair said the county was forced to get help from other companies, especially as more staffers became infected, to ensure they maintain baseline staffing levels and quality of care for residents.

But she said all contractors have to sign a contract to confirm they are not working at other facilities.

Sinclair said county staff who work in other departments have also been redeployed to the home to assist, and all county employees are only allowed to work at a single location.

Stewart said it’s “unacceptable” an outbreak like this was able to happen, but she places much of the blame on the provincial government.

She questions why more wasn’t done to prepare for the second wave in the summer when the number of cases dropped.

“Simcoe Manor is an indication that we haven’t done better,” she said.

This echoes statements that were made in a recent inquiry by doctors from the non-profit Ontario Long-Term Care Clinicians, about how the province ignored long-term care homes as it prepared hospitals for the second wave.

Earlier this month, the Ontario Health Coalition held protests to demand the Ford government take action to address what it calls the “critical shortage” of staffing and care in long-term care homes.

As part of its fall preparedness plan, the province said it would make $540 million in long-term care investments, with portions of the funding going towards enhanced infection prevention and control, and to address the issue of adequate staffing.

“We are working in partnership across government and doing everything we can to protect Ontarians from COVID-19,” said Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Long-Term Care, in a statement. “We have made tremendous progress to fortify our long-term care homes, so they have the physical and human resources they need to ensure the safety and well-being of all residents and staff.”

But Natalie Mehra, executive director of the coalition, described these investments as “piecemeal” and “inadequate.”

As of Oct. 26, there were 86 active outbreaks reported in LTC homes throughout Ontario and 1,921 resident deaths.

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Police seek suspect after alleged nighttime sex assault at Barrie park

Aug 5, 2021 , , , , by shlf

A young man is wanted following an alleged violent incident at a southend Barrie park Oct. 1.

City police say a woman was sexually assaulted at Hurst Park, , between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. Thursday. The woman was walking her dog at the site, which is near the Hurst and Purt Court intersection, when the attack occurred.

The investigation is being conducted by the crimes against person unit and the Criminal Investigations Bureau. Officers will be conducting a canvass in the Hurst area and want anyone who operates video surveillance in the neighbourhood to reach out. 

“Further details and updates will only be provided as the investigation permits,” spokesperson Peter Leon said. “Police remind the public to be aware of their personal safety at all times and, where possible, to avoid dark areas unless artificial lighting is available, especially during the overnight hours.”

Police describe the suspect as being between 16 years old and 26 years old. He is 5’8″ tall with a slim build and shaved blond hair. He wore an Under Armour top but the colour is unknown.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact police at , ext. 2700, or . They can also leave an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers at or .