上海龙凤419,上海419论坛,夜上海论坛 – Powered By WeiFeng TV

Tag: 上海楼凤 被抓

aaqqt lnwu

COVID testing to begin in schools in Toronto, Peel, York, Ottawa

Mar 31, 2022 , , , , by shlf

The provincial government will start asymptomatic testing of students and staff in Toronto, Peel, York and Ottawa in a move that could shed some light on the spread of in schools.

But experts and parents say a lot depends on how the program is rolled out in the four Ontario hot spots.

Despite increasing rates of community transmission of the disease, “our remain safe,” Education Minister Stephen Lecce said Thursday.

“The risk within our schools reflects the risk within our communities,” Lecce said at a press conference at St. Marcellinus Secondary School in Mississauga, alongside Premier Doug Ford. “We believe as we see the risk rising in our community, we cannot hope for the best. We’ve got to continuously act.”

The voluntary school testing — among the first such programs in Canada — is meant for students, staff and families over four weeks in areas experiencing the highest number of active cases. But Lecce said if health officials recommend “that it should be expanded or we should augment the list, we will continue to follow that direction and implement it swiftly.”

He added, “We do believe that this program is going to just only further help protect schools” and keep them open.

Transmission of the disease in schools has been a polarizing topic throughout the pandemic, with government and health officials saying schools are safe while some parents, educators and medical experts continue to call for more targeted testing to understand where cases could be missed.

Surveillance testing, in which groups of people without symptoms are tested to get data, has been used in U.S. schools in , and .

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute and the University of Toronto, said if the province’s announcement is “truly a surveillance program” then it’s a “great idea to see how much COVID is actually circulating in schools.”

If designed well, such testing could actually “detect infection early to prevent an outbreak,” he said. But “obviously, like anything else, the details are important.”

Rachel Huot, an organizer with the Ontario Parent Action Network, said there’s “no question” such a program will help, but added, “It’s just, how strong will it be?”

It is “late” to be starting this testing now, she said, after the province first announced it in August. “We sort of passed a really critical point in our schools, and it’s really light on the details about what it will look like.”

Testing was already under way Thursday at the first participating school, Thorncliffe Park Public School, in one of the hardest-hit neighbourhoods in Toronto, where about 300 of 750 students were tested.

The board is now looking at other schools to participate.

Three Toronto Catholic schools have been selected, and testing will run until Dec. 18.

Speaking before the announcement, Dr. Janine McCready, an infectious disease specialist at Michael Garron Hospital, said the Thorncliffe program is a way to break down barriers for community members, but also a way to understand “what is happening with school transmission,” since kids often of COVID-19.

“There’s so much talk and I don’t think we have as much evidence as we’d really like,” McCready added.

Toronto’s medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, has said the recent resurgence in cases in the city does not appear to be driven primarily by the reopening of schools.

Meanwhile, news of stable education funding grants this year was welcomed by school boards, given that some have had than expected because of the pandemic.

“We were very, very concerned about this and we are really pleased they listened to our concerns and froze funding,” said Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.

Boards would otherwise have lost “a significant amount of money across the province” because students — many of them in junior kindergarten — were expected to attend classes but didn’t, she added.

The Toronto District School Board alone was looking at a $41-million shortfall in its per-student funding.

Ford also announced the province will provide an extra $13.6 million in COVID funding to schools in regions where cases are edging up — Durham, Halton, Hamilton and Waterloo.

But NDP education critic Marit Stiles called the province’s testing announcement “a half-measure.”

“Some students in some regions may be able to get tests,” she said, noting the program lasts only four weeks.

“Ford’s still trying to cheap out on testing students, teachers and staff, and that’s not good enough,” she said.

It will be up to boards to determine where and how to conduct the testing, but rapid tests will not be used.

Kristin Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

May Warren is a Toronto-based breaking news reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

ultfixpt

Court rejects injunction to prevent Toronto from enforcing encampment prohibition in city parks

Aug 30, 2021 , , , , by shlf

An Ontario court has denied a request for an injunction that would have prevented Toronto from enforcing its prohibition on tents in city parks for the rest of the pandemic.

In the decision released Wednesday, Judge Paul Schabas cautioned that he wasn’t directing the city to remove the homeless encampments in city parks, and urged it to recognize that the situation was evolving.

“My decision is based on evidence that dates from the summer months when the incidence of COVID-19 was low, the weather was warm, and the city had specific concerns about particular group encampments,” Schabas wrote.

He also noted that the city had taken “significant steps” to respond to the threat of COVID-19 in shelters since the pandemic struck.

The city has to consider how and when to enforce its bylaws now, he wrote, based on the availability of safe shelter spaces and the impact of encampments on parks and the public.

While Schabas accepted that some of the applicants — a group consisting of several current and former encampment residents, the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty — feared being exposed to COVID-19 in shelters, he ruled the evidence before the court didn’t satisfy that “broad relief” was justified, even temporarily.

Calling homelessness an “unfortunate reality,” he said the city needed tools to address situations where public health and safety was jeopardized, or where the public’s use of parks was limited or prevented. Encampments, he wrote, impaired the use of park spaces — particularly during the pandemic when outdoor spaces were needed for activities that couldn’t be done indoors.

Arguments over the potential encampment injunction were , the same day as a separate hearing about distancing standards in Toronto’s shelter system. That case , with the city found by a judge to have breached its obligations under a settlement about COVID precautions in its homeless shelters.

Lawyers representing the applicants in the encampment suit argued that encampments alleviated stress and uncertainty for homeless people, by providing consistency around where they got their meals, relieved themselves, charged phones and slept at night. They argued encampments offered more consistent access to pharmacies, safe consumption sites and medical care.

The city meanwhile argued that the encampments posed “serious dangers” to those living in them, as well as city staff and the public.

“The city has made a policy decision to invest its scarce resources in making safer indoor spaces available to as many people as possible, rather than building infrastructure to support living within parks,” it wrote in submitted materials.

The city told the court it hadn’t taken steps to dismantle encampments since the case started, though it continued to make efforts to move people into shelters or other indoor housing.

Zoe Dodd, co-founder of the overdose prevention society, said she was disappointed to see Schabas’ decision. She said that the separate court ruling last week had shown the city wasn’t meeting safe distancing standards in its shelters.

She said it didn’t make sense that people in Toronto were advised not to see their families on Thanksgiving, nor celebrate Halloween, while the city was downtown this winter.

The applicants’ lawyers were deciding whether an appeal was possible, she said.

Dodd specifically took issue with Schabas’ conclusion that encampments impaired the public’s use of parks, arguing that those experiencing homelessness are part of the public.

In a statement, the city said it would continue trying to create capacity for those living in encampments to move indoors. According to the city, since March more than 948 people had been moved from encampments to indoor spaces — with 62 encampments cleared this year.

“Today’s ruling does not order the city to clear encampments,” according to the city’s statement, “rather the ruling does not prevent the city from clearing an encampment when shelter and housing options become available to those living in encampments or as required by the circumstances.”

Following the ruling, Mayor John Tory told reporters he understood that people needed better housing options in the city, and pledged to provide “as broad a range of options as possible” to those currently living in encampments — especially as the winter months approach.

With a file from Francine Kopun

Victoria Gibson is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering affordable housing. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email:

ptlsugd

Orillia OPP use GPS to track down stolen construction equipment

Aug 23, 2021 , , , , , by shlf

A 26-year-old London man is charged after Orillia OPP used a GPS tracker to find a stolen trailer and skid-steer loader.

Officers recovered the stolen goods, valued at more than $100,000, after they learned a tow truck was hauling the construction equipment north on Hwy. 400 Sept. 26.

The GPS tracker was installed in the equipment.

Officers pulled over the tow truck on Hwy. 11 south of Orillia in Oro-Medonte.

The suspect was charged with possession of stolen property over $5,000 and released on a promise to appear in Orillia court Nov. 24.