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Doug Ford defends closure of indoor restaurant and bar service as industry warns tens of thousands of jobs will be lost

Jul 28, 2022 , , , , by shlf

Docs before chefs.

Public health officials not restaurateurs will cook up Ontario’s response to the pandemic, warns Premier .

“I have to listen to the health professionals and we see the numbers going up and we’re concerned about that,” he told reporters Friday in Picton when asked why thousands of restaurants and bars are being limited to outdoor and takeout service.

“I hate shutting it down, I absolutely hate it. I understand what it takes to meet a payroll (and) take care of a business.”

Ford’s comments came as Restaurants Canada, a 40,000-member industry association, launched a public-relations blitz with newspaper ads appealing to politicians to allow indoor dining and drinking.

The organization predicted the ban on indoor service will cost 33,000 jobs in Toronto, 14,900 in Peel Region, 12,000 in Ottawa, and 8,800 in York Region.

“Picture life without restaurants,” says one newspaper ad, noting the sector “is being singled out and we deserve to understand why.”

Celebrity chef and restaurateur Mark McEwan took to Twitter to appeal directly to the premier and to Toronto Mayor John Tory.

“Doug Ford needs to lead Ontario back to work safely. Shutdowns are a mistake. Do the right thing and lead the economy back!! BOLD LEADERSHIP… Be brave, Doug Ford,” wrote McEwan.

“Boggles my mind that John Tory is not leading the back to work safely message. The city is dying. Wake up!!” added the former Top Chef Canada judge and the owner of Bymark, ONE Restaurant, and the McEwan gourmet food shops.

Ford insisted he has “a great deal of respect for Mark McEwan.”

“He’s a great entrepreneur, one of the great restaurant owners and, unfortunately, Mark’s not a medical professional. He’s a business owner. I respect the what he’s saying, but … we have to focus on the health and the safety of everyone across the province,” the premier said.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said “what we have to look at and listen to is the scientific clinical evidence” and restrict hospitality service to patios to limit new coronavirus infections.

“I certainly understand Mr. McEwan’s frustration. We’ve been advised by our public health measures table, by Dr. (David) Williams and his team that these are measures that we need to take in order to stop the community spread of COVID-19,” said Elliott.

“There are some economic points of assistance that we will be providing,” she said, adding the health officials are hopeful the 28-day lockdowns in the four most-afflicted regions will “will flatten the curve, bring the numbers down to a more manageable level, not overwhelm our hospitals.”

As first , the Progressive Conservatives are making permanent the temporary pandemic measure that allows restaurants and bars to sell beer, wine and spirits to go.

That liberalization, which with Ontarians, is designed to help struggling businesses keep afloat.

Associate Minister of Small Business Prabmeet Sarkaria has introduced legislation cutting red tape to help restaurants, bars, and shops.

Sarkaria also said there would be one-time grants of up to $1,000 for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees to defray the cost of personal protective equipment for workers.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter:

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Doug Ford warns Justin Trudeau not to use Ottawa’s emergency powers to fight COVID-19

Nov 2, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Just watch me? Just watch out.

That’s the message from Premier Doug Ford when asked about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau potentially invoking federal emergency legislation to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trudeau’s father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, used the old War Measures Act during the 1970 October Crisis amid Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorist fears, a move that remains controversial a half-century later.

While the current prime minister has resisted using what is now known as the Emergencies Act, which would restrict civil liberties, Ford warned doing so “wouldn’t go over too well, not just with me, with all 12 other premiers.” The War Measures Act was replaced by the Emergencies Act in 1988.

“That’s not their jurisdiction. We don’t need the nanny state telling us what to do. We understand our provinces,” the premier said Thursday during a campaign-style swing to a Hamilton shipyard.

“He’d have a kick back like he’s never seen from not just me, from every single premier, that just wouldn’t fly,” he said.

Ford emphasized he has been working “extremely well with the prime minister” and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland since COVID-19 struck Canada in March.

“All the ministers are in constant communication. That’s the way you get things done … not by … implementing restrictions and the feds telling us what to do.”

Any federal intervention would be “crossing the boundary,” the premier added.

“There’s one thing I understand about all the premiers is stick within your own jurisdiction.”

When invoked, the act gives the federal cabinet the right to take control of powers that are normally provincial or municipal.

On Tuesday, Trudeau emphasized he has been working closely with the provincial and territorial leaders.

“I’ve had … over 20 first ministers meetings since the beginning of this pandemic. The issue of the Emergencies Act has come up a number of times and I’ve continued to reassure them that I don’t see it as being necessary right now,” he said.

“I know that all Canadians are united in wanting to fight this pandemic. I know that all premiers are thinking about the health of their citizens as well as they think about the health of their economy and that’s why I’m confident we’re going to be able to continue to work together well and do the right things.”

Fifty years ago, at the urging of Quebec premier Robert Bourassa and Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, the elder Trudeau invoked martial law after the FLQ kidnapped provincial cabinet minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross.

Laporte was killed and his body found in a car trunk two days after the War Measures Act was implemented. Cross was released after two months as a hostage.

Last month, demanded the younger Trudeau apologize for his father’s actions, which led to hundreds of arbitrary arrests and detainments during the crisis.

In 1970, the then prime minister famously saidpressed him on how far he would go to deal with the FLQ terrorist threat.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter:

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‘It’s a monster of a virus’: What these Ontario COVID-19 survivors want you to know about the virus — and how to make it through the second wave

Oct 25, 2021 , , , , by shlf

As Ruth Castellanos watched cases of the strange new virus that had shut down China, then Italy and Spain, rise in Ontario last spring, she felt a pang of fear.

“I started thinking, ‘Oh my goodness,’ ” remembers the 38-year-old. “ ‘I hope it doesn’t get as bad here.’ ”

She couldn’t have known at that moment that she would soon become a case herself, part of a first wave of infected in the province who faced a terrifying disease that doctors knew little about.

Now, as they watch cases spike again, those patients have unique insights for those who will get this fall. People who, like them, will suddenly find themselves with strange symptoms or a positive test. And who can hopefully learn from them about everything from the importance of getting tested to the range of outcomes — and the little things that make it a bit easier to cope.

When Castellanos, a Hamilton college instructor who’s still unable to work, first became ill in May, she thought it would be over in a few weeks.

She thought it was just a respiratory virus.

She was wrong.

Still facing a constant “bombardment” of symptoms, from brain fog to a racing heart rate, she wants others to know that they can last for months.

“If you’re feeling any symptoms that you never felt before, fight for yourself to get help and get treated, because it’s not in your head,” she said.

“It’s affecting your brain, your heart, your organs, your stomach — it’s affecting everything.”

Castellanos, once an active avid gardener who now gets exhausted making dinner, is part of a group that call themselves “long-haulers,” people still struggling with lingering symptoms of the virus.

She said it’s important to know that if you’re not critical, you’ll be largely left to fend for yourself at home. She made it through with the support of her husband, and her dog, Buttons, who never left her side.

She tried to take her mind off the situation by watching funny shows, like all 60 episodes of a Spanish soap opera, and freezing meals, so they’d be available on days she was too tired to cook.

It’s also good to have people you can count on “on speed dial in case you need help,” she said.

Castellanos eventually tested negative. If too much time elapses between the first symptoms and testing, this can happen, experts say. She was told by one doctor she definitely had COVID-19, a clinical diagnosis she feels should be treated as just as important as a positive test, especially as testing was not open to everyone in the early days of the pandemic in the province.

She eventually found a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist on her own to consult about her persistent symptoms. Her advice is to “seek medical help, and if you’re denied, keep pushing.”

If a family doctor doesn’t have the answers, ask them to send you to someone who might know more, she said.

Getting tested quickly is one of the most important things to do, said Susie Goulding, another long-hauler, so that a lack of a positive test is not a barrier to care later.

Goulding, who’s also been struggling with a range of symptoms since late March, initially did not qualify for testing, because she hadn’t travelled and didn’t have a fever.

Although, like Castellanos, she was also told by a doctor to assume it was COVID-19, she was negative by the time she finally got the test.

“You need to go right away and get tested, because if you don’t get tested and if you have it, you could potentially end up a long-hauler and you might have difficulty trying to convince people that you actually have COVID-19,” said the 52-year-old Oakville floral designer, who’s still not able to work.

“A proper diagnosis is key.”

She also recommends having Tylenol, a thermometer and a pulse oximeter, a small device that measures oxygen levels in the blood at home.

But it’s hard to prepare in advance, because “the thing is that everybody displays such different symptoms.”

It’s like “putting your hand into a grab bag and pulling out a fistful of symptoms and that will be how your body reacts and how your COVID-19 journey is going to be,” she said.

It’s also important to look out for mental health, and get support for the anxiety and depression that might follow the isolation and trauma related to COVID-19, she added.

In June, Goulding started on Facebook, which now has more than 4,000 members. It’s been critical, she said, to connect with other survivors from across the country, who can share experiences, advice, research — even the names of specialists or studies that they’re involved in. This peer support has been essential, she said, especially as long-haulers are left without a one-stop shop for followup care. They’ve had to advocate for themselves, as they realized in real time just how devastating COVID-19 can be.

“I never thought in a million years that I would catch it,” she added. “It’s a monster of a virus.”

That’s something Heidi Robertson knows all too well. Her husband Torry, a nurse who worked in Michigan, across the border from their LaSalle, Ont. home near Windsor, got COVID-19 in March.

The 46-year-old “basketball dad” and “big teddy bear” “never got sick prior to this,” she said. Other than high blood pressure, he didn’t have any underlying medical conditions.

She warns others not to assume that just because they’re younger and healthy that they’ll be fine.

For Torry, shortness of breath was a later symptom, after vomiting, fever, loss of taste and smell, and diarrhea, but things quickly went downhill after that started.

He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance at the end of March.

Weeks before, he had told his wife that he didn’t want to be put on a ventilator if he got the virus.

In early April, over FaceTime, after doctors told her it was needed, she asked him if he’d changed his mind.

“He looked at me — he looked so weak — and he said, ‘I’m OK with it.’ He said, ‘Tell all the kids I love them, and I love you,’ and that was it,” she remembered

He spent seven terrifying weeks in the ICU, and 38 days on the ventilator, going into kidney failure at one point and needing dialysis.

During that time, Robertson said she stopped going on social media and reading about other cases online. Instead, she only listened to the doctors and nurses treating him, cutting out all the noise.

Torry was discharged from Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor earlier this month, but is left with a severe brain injury that has impacted his speech and balance. He’s continuing outpatient rehab.

“We just take it day-by-day,” Robertson said, adding she’ll always be grateful to the team that saved his life. “It’s been such a long road, and we have so much more to go.”

She’d tell others in the same spot to just keep putting one foot in front of the other, try to stay positive and have faith, even in the face of so many unknowns.

“Ask a lot of questions of the doctors,” she added, “and let the doctors know anything that has been going on with your loved one.”

Most people will not have such dramatic tales of COVID-19. For some, there will be no symptoms.

For others, it will feel like almost nothing.

But, said 20-year-old Hannah Abrahamse, that doesn’t mean it’s something to take lightly.

The Trent University English major was studying abroad in England when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadians to get home fast. She threw a few things into a suitcase and arrived in Toronto in late March, isolating in her grandmother’s empty house in Orillia.

About 10 days in, she started noticing a stuffy nose. She was sneezing, with watery eyes, a headache, a little bit of a sore throat, but no fever or cough.

Fearing for her mom and brother, who are immunocompromised, she pushed to get tested, and was turned away from an Orillia assessment centre twice because her symptoms weren’t serious enough.

Finally, after a referral from a family doctor, she got the test in early April and was stunned at the result: positive.

“I wasn’t even really concerned at all by my symptoms, because I didn’t feel very sick. I just thought, ‘Oh, this is really weird and bad timing. I have these bad allergies, probably because I’m back in Canada,’ ” she remembered.

“It was a good thing that I did, because otherwise I wouldn’t have known that I had COVID-19.”

She’d advise others to do the same.

The worst part of a mild bout with the disease, she said, was the isolation.

Watching the Netflix documentary ‘Tiger King’, doing lots of YouTube yoga, FaceTiming friends, and porch-drops of chocolate chip cookies from an aunt helped pass the time.

“I was glad to do it to keep everybody safe,” she said.

“What I want to make clear is it’s not about you, it’s about other people.”

Abrahamse was in a position where she could clearly see the chain of possible transmission, from herself to her mom or brother, and how her actions would directly impact others.

Many people might not see that so clearly, she said, but it will still be there.

She’s been hearing about some of her peers lately who are going to parties or seeing lots of different people every night — who shrug and assume since they’re young, they’ll be fine.

“And that’s really frustrating, especially because you can get it and not know if you don’t take your symptoms seriously, or you can be totally asymptomatic,” she said.

The best advice, agrees long-hauler Goulding, is to try not to get COVID-19 in the first place, so that you don’t pass it on to anyone else, or risk a complicated battle with it yourself.

“Take all precautions in trying to avoid it,” she said, “Like the plague that it is.”

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

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A vision for the future: CAMH unveils new emergency department, therapeutic recovery complex

Oct 22, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Juveria Zaheer eagerly volunteered to work the sleepless overnight shift on the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health’s new emergency department. Other clinicians, she said, requested the same.

“There’s just so much excitement happening,” said Zaheer, a psychiatrist at CAMH.

This excitement is driven by the long-awaited unveiling of two new buildings at Canada’s leading mental health hospital: a new emergency department and a state-of-the-art recovery complex at CAMH’s Queen Street West campus, both featuring central themes of bright, open space and natural light.

The new spaces are part of an ongoing, ambitious redevelopment plan that began in 2006 to integrate CAMH into one campus and build a vision for what the future of mental health care could look like, CAMH’s CEO Catherine Zahn said.

The goal, Zahn said, is for CAMH to move away from an institutional environment by building a bridge with the community that surrounds it, lending to “the acceptance of mental illness, not as something that’s behind walls anymore,” but something that is central to the overall health of the community.

“There’s no health without mental health,” Zahn said.

Over a two-day period starting Wednesday, more than 200 patients were to be transported from the old building on College Street to the new buildings: The Crisis and Critical Care Building, which includes the new emergency department, and the McCain Complex Care and Recovery Building.

It’s a challenging feat due to the pandemic, but one that proved to be timely due to the new buildings’ abundance of space.

“Moving into these new spaces is actually extremely desirable for us during the pandemic,” Zahn said. The new emergency department is double the size of the old one and features more spacious patient rooms, each equipped with a private bathroom, which will limit the sharing of common spaces.

As of Tuesday, CAMH had two patients and seven staff who tested positive for COVID-19, according to the hospital’s website. Zahn said patients will be transported to the new building with the help of moving companies who are following rigorous sanitation procedures to ensure a safe move.

The move includes COVID-19 positive patients, where Toronto Public Health was also consulted.

In addition to more physical space, the Crisis and Critical Care Building features an outdoor terrace for patients to access fresh air, and more rooms for group therapy sessions and other recovery programs. It also offers more space dedicated to triaging patients.

“In our current space, I’ll walk into the (emergency) department and there will be people in rooms, but there will also be people in stretchers and people sitting in seats and sleeping there,” Zaheer said. “Having more rooms will make a world of a difference.”

There are 235 new patient beds in total between the new Critical Care Building and the Complex Care and Recovery Building. This includes an increase of Psychiatric Intensive Care Units from nine to 41 — more than quadrupling the previous capacity of beds that were fully at use by both CAMH and patients from other area hospitals.

Alongside housing patient beds, the McCain Complex Care and Recovery Building will also serve as a unique, transformative hub for patients to learn life skills needed on their path to recovery.

Part of this is a “therapeutic neighbourhood,” which holds a laundry room, an exercise room and an industrial-sized kitchen affiliated with George Brown College, where patients can take classes and learn how to perform daily tasks. The building is also home to music and art studios for various forms of art therapy.

Erin Ledrew, a recreation therapist at CAMH, said the McCain complex was created with the help of existing literature on what mental health care can and should look like, and will serve as “a central programming space” for patients.

“I think that will create a real sense of community,” Ledrew said.

The McCain building also features a library that is open to the public and tied to CAMH’s larger vision of connecting the hospital with its surrounding community. Both buildings also feature artwork from previous CAMH patients, some of whom are Indigenous and channelled their culture and recovery journey into their art.

For now, patients will be engaged in physically distant in-person tours of the new space, while virtual ones will be offered simultaneously. Ledrew said the building is large enough to offer some programming in a safe and distant manner as well.

“Right now, we have a hybrid model that will allow us to still offer all of that programming, while maintaining not mixing (units) and continuing to follow all the protocols during COVID,” Ledrew said.

The hope is that the new buildings will offer better care for patients and their families while providing the space and facilities to guide them in life beyond their time at CAMH, Ledrew said.

“We’re really trying to offer spaces for people to feel safe to explore the strategies that work for them in their recovery,” she said.

Nadine Yousif is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering mental health. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Follow her on Twitter:

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Orillia’s new Canadian Tire superstore welcomes customers

Oct 22, 2021 , , , , by shlf

History buff, Ed Lukezic — the owner of Orillia’s new Canadian Tire superstore — has turned your shopping trip into an experience.

“We have certainly done an awful lot to make it not just a place to buy a hammer, or a saw, or a toaster,” he said.

Walk through the automotive accessories department and you’ll see a 1930 Model A Ford pickup truck and a 1926 Texaco gas pump.

“That’s my signature,” Lukezic said of his collection of historical pieces. “Instead of them sitting in a garage or whatever, it’s nice when a lot of people get to see them.”

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The superstore officially opened Sunday, Nov. 1 beside Orillia Square Mall, .

At just over 140,000 square feet, the store is twice the size of its predecessor. In the 80,000 square feet of retail space, you’ll find an extensive variety of products.

“We basically designed the building to cater to the demographics of the community: hunting, fishing, marine, camping, patio, automotive, (these are) significantly larger than the typical store,” Lukezic said.

Gesturing toward an aisle dedicated to motor oil, Lukezic talks about “trip assurance.”

“We need to do our best to ensure when a customer comes in here, we have what they’re looking for,” Lukezic said.

The automotive service shop features 20 bays and is loaded with state-of-the-art, high-end technology, Lukezic said. Mechanics here can do everything from 15-minute oil changes to precise realignment of vehicle sensors. There is even a hoist strong enough to lift a fire truck.

Customers who don’t want to go in-store can and choose a contactless pick-up option. Your purchase is placed in a lock box that opens when you scan a code sent to your phone. A garden centre is set to open next spring.

Lukezic and his wife Valerie have lived all over the country as associates of different Canadian Tire stores. He said it’s a dream to settle in Orillia, as they fell in love with the community years ago while renting a home on Sparrow Lake.

“I honestly couldn’t imagine a better place to live,” Lukezic said.

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Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reports 977 new cases, 9 deaths; Italy eyes more restrictions; Fauci warns of ‘a whole lot of hurt’ ahead

Oct 8, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Read The Star’s . This story is no longer updating. .

10:15 p.m.: Vancouver police say they are disappointed after social media posts showed downtown streets crowded with party-goers on Halloween night, apparently flouting COVID-19 safety protocols.

Spokesman Const. Jason Doucette says it wasn’t possible to try to disperse the alcohol-fuelled crowd or issue tickets due to a number of factors.

He says the number of people in downtown grew larger than expected and additional resources were brought in from around the city.

Doucette says police made a number of arrests for minor offences, such as causing a disturbance, but there were no reported injuries.

He says police likely won’t have a clear picture of calls for service on Halloween until later today.

On Thursday, B.C.’s chief medical officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, said the province was in a “danger zone” with more than 2,300 active cases of COVID-19 being reported.

7 p.m.: Manitoba is reporting six new deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, four of which are associated with an outbreak at a long-term care home in Winnipeg.

The province says the deaths of two women and a man in their 80s, as well as a woman in her 90s, were connected with the outbreak at the Maples Long Term Care Home.

The release says a man in his 70s also died in connection with an outbreak at Winnipeg’s St. Boniface Hospital, and that a man in his 50s died in the Steinbach district.

A woman in her 90s who was among the four people the government said died a day earlier was also linked to the outbreak at Maples.

The chief medical officer for Revera, the company which operates the facility, said in a news release late last week that 96 residents had tested positive for COVID-19 but that almost all were asymptomatic, and that it was working closely with Winnipeg Regional Health Authority officials.

Manitoba reported more than 300 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday.

6:34 p.m.: Diminutive figures of skeletons in facemasks and medical caps are all too common on Mexico’s Day of the Dead altars this year.

More than 1,700 Mexican health workers are officially known to have died of COVID-19 and they’re being honoured with three days of national mourning.

One is Dr. Jose Luis Linares, who attended to patients at a private clinic in a poor neighbourhood in Mexico City, usually charging about 30 pesos (roughly $1.50) a consultation.

“I told him, ‘Luis, don’t go to work.’ But he told me, ‘then who is going to see those poor people,’” said his widow, Dr. María del Rosario Martínez. She said he had taken precautions against the disease because of lungs damaged by an earlier illness.

Her Day of the Dead altar this year includes — in addition to the usual marigolds and paper cutouts — little skeleton figures shown doing consultations or surgeries in honour of colleagues who have died.

Amnesty International said last month that Mexico had lost more medical professionals to the coronavirus than any other nation.

6:34 p.m.: Maine is reinstating restrictions meant to curb the spread of COVID-19 amid a resurgence of the virus, Gov. Janet Mills said Sunday.

Maine has been one of the most successful states at controlling the virus, but it’s dealing with a wave of new infections. The rolling average of daily cases more than doubled from below 30 per day to more than 67 by Friday. The state reported 103 infections that day, the largest single day increase in cases.

The state had been slated to reopen bars Monday, but that has been postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date, said Mills, a Democrat.

The state is removing New York, Connecticut and New Jersey from its list of states that are exempt from travel restrictions, Mills said. That means visitors from those states must quarantine for two weeks or produce a negative coronavirus test.

Maine is also reducing indoor capacity limits from 100 to 50, Mills said.

The new restrictions take effect Wednesday.

1:15 p.m.: Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has tested negative for the coronavirus.

She had been tested and isolating since the previous day after receiving a warning on the COVID Alert app.

6:33 p.m.: Facing a relentless surge in cases of coronavirus infections, Lebanese authorities are lengthening a nationwide nighttime curfew and placing a number of towns and villages under total lockdown.

The Interior Ministry’s decisions Sunday increase a nighttime curfew by four hours, asking people to stay off the streets and shops to close between 9pm local time and 5am. It did not set an end date.

The Interior Ministry also put 115 towns and villages in total lockdown for a week because of a high positive infection rate and “high level of danger.” Bars and nightclubs will continue to be closed; restaurants and cafes are to continue to operate at 50% while public gatherings and parties are barred.

Lebanon, a country of over 5 million, has been witnessing a surge of infection cases, deaths and intensive care unit occupancy over the past weeks that brought the recorded cases to over 80,000. According to health ministry statistics, the number of recorded cases nearly doubled between September and October in the country that is also home to over 1 million refugees. The percentage of positive tests has increased to over 12% for every 100 tests and the average age of those who die from the virus has gone down.

6:30 p.m.: The governor of the Italian region with the largest percentage of residents older than 65 has apologized for a tweet which contended the elderly aren’t indispensable to the country’s production, as Italy battles COVID-19.

The newspaper Corriere della Sera said Liguria Gov. Giovanni Toti, in a meeting Sunday with government ministers, had advocated limiting movement outside the home for those older than 70 in a bid to avoid a generalized, nationwide lockdown amid surging spread of coronavirus infections.

“For as much as every single COVID-19 victim pains us, we must keep in mind this data: Only yesterday among the 25 deaths in Liguria, 22 were very elderly patients,” Toti tweeted on Sunday.

They are “persons for the most part in retirement, not indispensable to the productive effort” of the economy, tweeted Toti, who is 52. Nearly 29 per cent of Liguria’s residents are older than 65, compared to a nationwide percentage of just under 23 per cent.

Maurizio Gasparri, a 64-year-old senator, slammed Toti’s assessment of the elderly’s value as “delirious.” Apologizing for what he termed “misunderstandings,” Toti later claimed his tweet was “badly extrapolated” and blamed it on an error by his social media manager.

1:10 p.m.: Quebec is reporting 965 new cases of COVID-19 today, bringing the total number of cases since the pandemic started to 106,981.

Officials also reported 26 new deaths related to the disease, including six from the last 24 hours.

Officials say there were 15 from between Oct 25 and Oct. 30, two deaths from before Oct. 25 and 3 deaths from unknown dates.

The province’s death toll now stands at 6,272.

10:42 a.m.: Ontario is reporting 977 cases of COVID-19 today, and nine deaths.

There are 279 new cases in Toronto, 238 in Peel, 130 in Ottawa and 113 in York Region. Over 37,100 tests were completed (compared to 41,900 tests the previous day).

Ontario reported 350 people in hospital (up 30 from Saturday’s numbers), 72 in the ICU (down one) and 46 in ICU on ventilators (down eight).

On Saturday the province reported 1,015 cases (the second highest total) and nine deaths. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ontario has recorded 76,707 cases according to provincial statistics.

A total of 864 more cases are considered resolved.

10:10 p.m.: The U.S. government’s top infectious diseases expert is cautioning that there will be “a whole lot of hurt” in the weeks ahead due to surging coronavirus cases. Dr. Anthony Fauci’s comments in a Washington Post interview take issue with President Donald Trump’s frequent assertion that the nation is “rounding the turn” on the virus.

Fauci says the U.S. “could not possibly be positioned more poorly” to stem rising cases as more people gather indoors during the colder fall and winter months. He says the U.S. will need to make an “abrupt change” in public health precautions.

Speaking of the risks, Fauci says he believes Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden “is taking it seriously from a public health perspective,” while Trump is “looking at it from a different perspective.” Fauci, who’s on the White House coronavirus task force, says that perspective is “the economy and reopening the country.”

In response, White House spokesperson Judd Deere says Trump always puts people’s well-being first and Deere charges that Fauci has decided “to play politics” right before Tuesday’s election.

9:39 p.m.: Iran hit another single-day record for coronavirus deaths as the country grapples with a sharp spike in cases.

The health ministry reported Sunday that 434 people had died in 24 hours from the virus, bringing Iran’s death toll in the pandemic to more than 35,000.

The ministry said it recorded 7,719 new confirmed infections since Saturday. Iran has reported more than 620,000 confirmed virus cases in all.

Most deaths have occurred in the capital, Tehran, which is also the most populated city in Iran. The head of the virology department at Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran, Alireza Naji, warned that Iran could reach 900 confirmed coronavirus deaths per day if more restrictions on movement and gatherings are not imposed.

7:14 a.m.: Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte is expected this week to order more restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Conte addresses lawmakers at noon Monday to lay out the next measures and press for widespread public support after a week of nightly protests by Italians angered by limits on the personal freedom and the economic damage suffered by closed businesses. Conte was conferring on Sunday with governors and representatives from cities and towns in a bid to ensure local support. He has said he is determined to keep schools open if possible.

For two days straight, Italy registered more than 30,000 new confirmed infections. Just a week ago, Conte shuttered gyms, pools, cinemas and theatres and ordered bars and cafes to stop serving customers at 6 p.m., except for takeaway and delivery service.

4:49 a.m.: A Turkish politician from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party has died from the coronavirus.

Burhan Kuzu, 65, had been receiving treatment for COVID-19 since Oct. 17, the country’s health minister tweeted. He passed away Sunday.

A constitutional lawyer and a founding member of the governing Justice and Development Party, Kuzu served in parliament four times.

Two senior officials close to Turkey’s leader — presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu — tweeted on Saturday that they had contracted COVID-19. Both said they were doing well. Soylu was in a hospital.

4:33 a.m.: There are 234,511 confirmed cases in Canada.

_ Quebec: 106,016 confirmed (including 6,246 deaths, 90,576 resolved)

_ Ontario: 75,730 confirmed (including 3,136 deaths, 64,717 resolved)

_ Alberta: 27,664 confirmed (including 323 deaths, 22,169 resolved)

_ British Columbia: 14,381 confirmed (including 263 deaths, 11,670 resolved)

_ Manitoba: 5,723 confirmed (including 69 deaths, 2,646 resolved)

_ Saskatchewan: 3,144 confirmed (including 25 deaths, 2,380 resolved)

_ Nova Scotia: 1,109 confirmed (including 65 deaths, 1,033 resolved)

_ New Brunswick: 343 confirmed (including 6 deaths, 299 resolved)

_ Newfoundland and Labrador: 291 confirmed (including 4 deaths, 284 resolved), 1 presumptive

_ Prince Edward Island: 64 confirmed (including 64 resolved)

_ Yukon: 23 confirmed (including 1 death, 17 resolved)

_ Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed (including 13 resolved)

_ Northwest Territories: 9 confirmed (including 8 resolved)

_ Nunavut: No confirmed cases

_ Total: 234,511 (1 presumptive, 234,510 confirmed including 10,138 deaths, 195,876 resolved)

4:22 a.m.: Facing financial difficulties aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic, the southern African nation of Zambia appears headed for a default on debt owed to private investors.

One of the world’s top copper producers, Zambia for years has been heavily indebted but now could get an undesired reputation for financial unreliability if a group of investors who hold $3 billion of the country’s eurobonds insist on payments that have come due. Zambia seeks a holiday of six months, but the bondholders’ final decision is pending.

12:10 a.m.: Australia has recorded no new locally transmitted coronavirus infection for the first time in five months.

In Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, which had the highest number of cases in the country, residents were enjoying the first weekend of cafes, restaurants and pubs reopening to walk-in customers.

The city only has one mystery case without a known source. There are 61 active cases left across the state, down from 70 on Saturday.

7:25 p.m.: Boris Johnson announced a national lockdown across England starting next week as the coronavirus outbreak spreads faster than even his U.K. government’s worst-case scenario.

The prime minister announced the measures Saturday with Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance and England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty in London. It comes as the official number of coronavirus cases in the U.K. topped 1 million and more details began to trickle out.

Restaurants and nonessential retail will be closed across England until Dec. 2, ITV’s Robert Peston reported, following a meeting of Johnson’s Cabinet on Saturday. International travel will be banned except for work purposes. But schools and universities will remain open, marking a key difference with the first national lockdown imposed by Johnson in March.

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Here are 8 implications of Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis

Oct 8, 2021 , , , , by shlf

As the president of the United States boarded the Marine One helicopter for hospital on Friday, he was leaving behind a dizzying array of questions.

was bound for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he will be treated for , the disease that has consumed the attention, and the health, of the country he leads for the past six months.

Trump’s diagnosis, announced on Twitter the previous night, has speculation swirling about his condition, an already-fraught and what would happen should he become incapacitated by the virus that has shaken America and the world.

The Star talked to political observers about some of the most pressing implications of the president’s health problems.

All eyes may be on Mike Pence

In a scenario with so many moving parts — how sick Trump is, whether others close to him will test positive — one certainty is that the campaign must go on.

For the minimum of 14 days that the president is in isolation, surrogates such as U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence, who has tested negative for the virus, and White House Chief of staff Mark Meadows, may play a greater role in campaigning.

“Given some of Trump’s issues of late with messaging that, in some ways, could be a boon,” said Renan Levine, a political science professor at the University of Toronto. “I would expect that as others in the campaign handle Trump’s messaging, that the messaging is going to be more on-theme. More on what needs to be done in the campaign to sway voters.”

Levine points out that polling throughout the 2020 presidential election campaign has been incredibly stable — with Trump behind by about 10 points in the polls, and few undecided voters.

But among those voters Levine calls “wavering,” who may be Republicans who don’t appreciate Trump’s persona, yielding centre stage to a more conventional conservative leader such as Pence may be just the motivation they need to go vote, with about a month left of campaigning.

Stewart Prest, a political science professor at Simon Fraser University, said Trump’s disappearance from rally stages will be a major disruption to what has been a “leader-centred” campaign.

“The approach to campaigning that Donald Trump favours is not going to be possible in the same way, bringing together large rallies. He’s a galvanizing figure for the campaign, so there’s no one who can replicate that. It really is Donald Trump’s party.”

An unpopular president could reap public sympathy

“We should expect there will be an outpouring of at least some sympathy for Trump even if some of the response is, ‘Well, this was a risk that all the doctors told you was going to happen,’” Levine said.

The question is whether that sympathy will translate into votes. On that front, Levine is doubtful.

“America is already so polarized,” he said. “People are going to respond to the news of Trump’s illness as Republicans and Democrats.”

Markets will react to an even greater level of uncertainty

Walid Hejazi, professor of international business at the University of Toronto, said the news that Trump has coronavirus leaves financial markets in an even more volatile position than they already were.

“Markets just hate uncertainty,” Hejazi said. “In this case here — there’s so much uncertainty.”

Start with the election itself. The stock market thrives when the future regulatory and political environment in the U.S. is predictable, and likely to remain stable. With Donald Trump behind Democratic presidential contender in the polls, the likelihood of future policy changes is already high.

The uncertainty surrounding the president’s health just raises the stakes.

Trump could change his tune on COVID-19 … or not

The president, as a 74-year-old man, is in a higher risk category for having a severe form of COVID-19, but the most likely outcome is that he will recover fully.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said on Bloomberg TV on Friday that a person with Trump’s risk factors still had about a 90 per cent chance of recovering without having to be hospitalized.

The White House said Trump was showing “cold-like” symptoms. In the evening, he was taken to the military hospital, reportedly as a precaution.

But, given the president’s statements downplaying the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a chance that the president contracting the illness could change his tone — and that of those who have followed him.

“Somebody who has been at the forefront of COVID-19 skepticism nationally, him contracting the virus may lend some credence to taking this more seriously,” Prest said.

But Prest and Levine are both watching closely for how Trump’s disease progresses — and whether that has a bearing on his supporters’ impressions of the pandemic.

“I will unequivocally state as an American that I pray and wish for the president to make a speedy and quick recovery,” Levine said. “As a political scientist, I worry that an implication of a speedy recovery may be that Americans who look to him will continue to not take the pandemic seriously.”

The second debate is in doubt

A diagnosis of COVID-19 throws all of Trump’s pre-scheduled campaign events out the window.

The next debate between the candidates is scheduled for Oct. 15 — exactly 14 days after Trump’s positive COVID-19 test. Since Trump is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and will likely have to isolate for 14 days after symptoms dissipate, it’s unlikely he will be able to make that date.

“The debate was already under scrutiny given how chaotic the first was,” Prest said. “The debate cannot go ahead with one candidate seriously ill so that portion of the campaign might be suspended.”

Changes already proposed to the debate structure, intended to promote a more productive dialogue between the two men, will likely have to be re-examined.

More government figures will be tested, and isolate

With the president isolating for at least 14 days, and at least one senior Trump adviser, Hope Hicks, having also tested positive, other government officials will have to be tested.

“One of the things we need to ascertain is how many people are affected,” Prest said. “If a significant portion of the executive branch are isolating, that raises questions about the functioning of government.”

This is one of the major reverberations associated with Trump’s diagnosis.

Biden must decide what to do while Trump is sick

Biden has maintained a relatively low profile throughout the 2020 election campaign, seemingly preferring to allow Trump to speak for himself while enjoying a 10-point lead in the polls.

Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis means he will be in public a lot less — leaving Biden with a choice between trying to use that time to gain more Trump-free airtime, or taking a step back to respect his opponent’s inability to campaign.

Much will depend on how quickly Trump recovers.

A New York Times journalist Friday tweeted Biden would be pulling all negative ads about Trump.

Notably, Trump continued campaigning in 2016 when Hillary Clinton experienced pneumonia. He even mocked her falling over during her illness in front of a rally crowd.

There will be conspiracy theories

Already online Friday, unfounded rumours started circulating on both the left and the right about Donald Trump’s illness.

Prest viewed the online chatter as a both a symptom of how polarized the United States is, and how we can expect the rest of the campaign period to proceed.

“It’s going to make it harder to have a sustained and factually based conversation in the United States where everyone agrees on what happens,” Prest said.

Alex McKeen is a Vancouver-based reporter covering transportation and labour for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

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MaRS Impact Week offers a vision for a sustainable recovery from COVID-19

Oct 7, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The first-ever MaRS Impact Week — five days of virtual talks, workshops and panels — will focus on technological solutions to climate change, as well as the pandemic’s impact on work and the tech sector, and the role of venture capital investment in positive change.

Yung Wu, CEO of the tech incubator, said that in the years leading up to 2020, has seen exponential growth in the revenue, capital raised and employee footprint of the ventures and entrepreneurs it represents.

“There’s absolutely an inflection point going on in the innovation economy,” he said.

Though the seeds for Impact Week were planted before the pandemic, Wu believes the topics up for discussion are more important than ever as the recovery from the recession looms.

“We believe, especially in a post-COVID world, the new economy is actually being built on the back of the innovation economy,” he said.

“Post-pandemic, I would say the connection between the innovation economy and the new economy has become even stronger than ever.”

Many of the problems that existed before the pandemic, such as climate change, as well as issues created or exacerbated by the pandemic, can be solved using technology, Wu said.

He pointed to health and the climate as two areas where he believes Canadian companies are already seeing momentum. For example, technology has been key to mitigating the pandemic in terms of contact tracing and rapid testing.

Wu believes health technology will continue to grow post-pandemic, as will technology focused on solutions to the climate crisis.

Canadian companies leading the way in the area of climate solutions include CarbonCure, a company that recycles carbon from the concrete manufacturing process back into the concrete itself; and Ranovus, which is working on reducing the heat footprints of data centres, he said.

“Canada has ruled the energy space, but we should be and could be the future of energy as well,” said Wu.

The conference will have three virtual stages, each with a theme: impact, cleantech and social finance.

Torstar is a media sponsor for the event, which runs Nov. 30 to Dec. 4. It includes speakers from companies such as OpenText, Mitacs and Lane, as well as experts such as Roger Martin of the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, political commentator David Frum and political scientist and author Thomas Homer-Dixon.

One such expert addressing the event is Margaret O’Mara, a professor of history at the University of Washington and author of “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America,” which delves into the history of Silicon Valley.

She’ll discuss whether Silicon Valley is a model that can — or should — be duplicated, and about the role of venture capital funding in positive change and the post-COVID recovery.

Venture capital funding will be a big part of tackling the post-COVID recovery, as well as lasting problems such as climate change, she said, adding government needs to be involved to incentivize the right kind of growth.

“If there are government pools of money that are creating market opportunity, the private money will follow,” she said.

Unlike during the last recession, O’Mara said investment needs to be made in all sectors of the economy to ensure a more equitable recovery.

However, the pandemic has also shown that “software can only do so much,” she said.

“I think the answer is recognizing where the limitations (are).”

O’Mara said COVID has been a big disruption, but added it has also created opportunities — such as the increased flexibility of working from home — that she hopes will create lasting change.

“I think COVID has provided this strange rupture that creates space for change,” she said.

“Change is going to happen. The question is, what is it going to look like?”

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

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Thorncliffe Park Public School, first site of Ontario’s asymptomatic school testing, closes as cases climb

Oct 6, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The Toronto school that’s the first site of the province’s voluntary mass asymptomatic testing program, has closed as cases climb.

East York’s Thorncliffe Park Public School is dismissing all students until at least Dec. 9, wrote principal Jeff Crane in a letter to parents and guardians on Thursday. Students and staff will not be allowed to enter the building until at least that date.

“As you know, Toronto Public Health (TPH) is continuing to investigate the 26 COVID-19 cases at the school. To allow them time to finish their investigation and to perform additional voluntary COVID-19 testing, they have advised that, based on the current situation, all students and staff at the school be dismissed,” he wrote.

The move to close comes after three teachers walked off the job Thursday. Jennifer Brown, president of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto said almost half the student body at the school is now in isolation. With 24 students and two staff members testing positive, everyone is “walking on egg shells,” she said.

The school, near Don Valley Parkway and Millwood Road, is in a neighbourhood that’s been hard hit by . Asymptomatic testing was completed Monday, with more than 500 kids tested, out of a student body of 750. The province announced in the COVID hot spots of Toronto, York, Peel and Ottawa last week, as a way to get a better handle on spread in schools.

Brown said earlier Thursday that the number of cases at Thorncliffe is a concern. It’s been a “revolving door of cases” there, she said, since around Oct. 24 when an outbreak was first declared, and there have been 41 cases since the start of September. Eighteen classes and about 348 students are in isolation, along with 27 teachers, she said.

Brown believes cases in schools are being underestimated, as many children have mild COVID-19 symptoms or none at all.

The spread of the virus in schools has been a hot-button issue, with officials insisting they don’t seem to be drivers of transmission, while some experts, parents and teachers argue there’s not enough data to know the full picture.

Brown said Toronto Public Health has not been transparent about contact tracing, and how they determine which schools to close. She wants to keep schools open in general for students’ well-being, but they need “the tools” to be safe, such as smaller class sizes and more funding for ventilation systems.

“This is a pandemic why, are we nickel-and-diming the health and safety of students? It’s unacceptable.”

Toronto District School Board spokesperson Ryan Bird said it’s “hard to speculate” on whether more staff will walk off the job at other schools as testing is rolled out. “It really comes down to an individual feeling that they think it’s unsafe,” he said.

“They’ve initiated this process this morning, the ministry of labour is involved, and we’re obviously trying to answer as many questions as we can to allay some of these concerns,” he said Thursday morning over the phone on his way to the school before the decision was made to close it.

Toronto Public Health spokesperson Dr. Vinita Dubey said in an email before the closure was announced that the agency continues to work with school boards to ensure protections are in place at schools, including daily screening and targeted testing.

“Decisions on whether or not schools should stay open are based on many factors including how many cases are related to the school, how many of the cases could have been acquired or spread in the school, and how well the school is implementing protective measures,” she said. “We also provide advice and recommendations to our local school boards to inform the school boards’ decisions on class and school dismissals.”

She added that “it is also important to remember that not all COVID-19 cases that are related to schools got their infection at school.” The agency does contact tracing in schools, but has still not resumed wider contact tracing in the community. It stopped contacting the close contacts of positive cases outside of outbreak settings in October, citing overwhelming case numbers.

Asymptomatic testing will also be carried out at the TDSB’s nearby Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute and Valley Park Middle School, as well as Lester B. Pearson Collegiate Institute in Scarborough. schools have also been selected: St. Fidelis, St. John the Evangelist and Chaminade College. York Region is targeting 30 schools, including those that don’t already have a problem with cases, to get a baseline.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce told reporters Thursday that the province began asymptomatic testing “in the highest-risk regions of the province … with the aim to identify” cases and reduce transmission among students, staff and their families.

“That’s why we launched, it,” he said, noting the high turnout for the Thorncliffe testing.

When asked about teachers there refusing to work, he said he appreciates their concerns, and that “the ministry of labour has a job, an independent review to ensure that staff, wherever they are working, are in a safe environment … and I have confidence in the process.”

He said public health makes the decisions on keeping schools open, but comparing Ontario to the rest of Canada or jurisdictions around the world, “we are still able to keep our schools open, and safe.”

But New Democrat MPP Marit Stiles, her party’s education critic, said the government should begin a comprehensive program of asymptomatic testing.

The province needs to track how COVID is being transmitted in schools, and testing in the four hot spots is not enough, because “basing them only in areas with the highest infection rates is really missing the point,” Stiles said in the legislature Thursday.

“I can assure you that no parent or guardian whose child has been exposed to COVID at school is comforted by this minister getting up in (the legislature) every single day to say, ‘Hey, relax, the kids are all right.’ Tell that to the families at Thorncliffe.”

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

Libaan Osman is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Reach him via email:

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

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Shelley Deeks, the Public Health Ontario whistleblower on colour-coded COVID restrictions, is leaving for a job in Nova Scotia

Oct 4, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Dr. Shelley Deeks, the whistleblower who revealed the province when establishing its colour-coded COVID-19 plan, is leaving her job with Public Health Ontario, the agency announced Wednesday.

PHO was created in 2007 as an independent public health agency to address failures during SARS. Deeks is currently its chief health protection officer in charge of leading PHO’s pandemic response and serves on the province’s public health measures table, a key expert group that advises on restrictions and lockdown measures.

Deeks, who has worked with PHO since 2009, is moving to Nova Scotia to pursue “an exciting career opportunity” as that province’s new medical officer of health for surveillance, PHO spokesperson Janet Wong said in an email.

Her last day with PHO will be Jan. 8.

“She’s a great person and a great leader. I think this is a huge loss for Ontario and a huge gain for Nova Scotia,” said Dr. Andrew Morris, an infectious disease specialist with the Sinai Health System.

“When you lose one of your main scientific minds on public health — who has a prominent role at the (health measures) table — that is a really big deal.”

Deeks made headlines last month by revealing to the Star that the province’s thresholds for implementing COVID restrictions were two to four times higher than what its own public health agency had recommended.

Deeks further revealed that she only learned of the province’s final colour-coded framework when it was unveiled to the public — contradicting statements from provincial officials that its plan had been designed after full consultation with experts like the health measures table, of which Deeks is a member.

The revelations sparked a public outcry and accusations from opposition leaders that provincial officials had “lied” to Ontarians. Scientists who had been critical of the province’s colour-coded framework praised Deeks as a “hero” for speaking out against a plan that many experts considered dangerously lax.

In the wake of the Star’s story, Health Minister Christine Elliott initially said the province had no plans to change its framework and Premier Doug Ford dismissed PHO’s recommendations of lower thresholds as “one doctor’s perspective” — even though they represented the public health agency’s advice, which it had provided at the health ministry’s request.

Two days after Deeks’s comments were published, and on the heels of alarming new modelling projections, Ford the province was lowering its thresholds to levels more in line with PHO’s initial recommendations.

published on PHO’s website Wednesday, Deeks said she is excited for the next stage of her career.

“Leaving PHO, I take with me very rewarding and enriching professional experiences as well as lifelong friendships,” she said. “Public Health is a small world and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with my colleagues in Ontario.”

She will be replaced at PHO by Dr. Jessica Hopkins, who Deeks described as a “respected and dynamic public health professional and leader” who will be an “extraordinary leader” in the agency’s COVID-19 response. Hopkins currently serves as the agency’s deputy chief of health protection.

Jennifer Yang is a Toronto-based health reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: