Canadian News

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Scott Ross became suspicious of a scam when he received a lengthy email from an unknown sender, claiming to have access to his online browsing data, personal photographs and his phone number — information the person said would be released if he didn't pay almost $2,000 in bitcoin. 

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Kelly Maloney spoke to her son Marcus for the final time over the phone from the St. Laurent Shopping Centre on Sept. 16, 2022, when he called her and asked for an e-transfer for lunch money and party supplies for his 19th birthday party. Read More

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A school board trustee's application for a judicial review after she was found in violation of the trustee Code of Conduct has been dismissed by the Divisional Court. Read More

The public will get its first glimpse of the proposed designs for a new Alexandra Bridge at two open houses next week. Read More

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Premier François Legault of saying things that he "knows aren't true" about immigration as the two leaders continue to clash over the issue. Read More

The union representing longshore workers at the Port of Montreal said Friday work at two terminals could come to a standstill next week as the union served a 72-hour strike notice. Read More

About 100 artists, actors, comedians musicians and other members of the province's cultural scene have signed an open letter denouncing a decision by the Quebec Court of Appeal ordering the La Tulipe performance hall in Montreal to stop making noise that could disturb its neighbours. Read More

OTTAWA — Federal spending on financial supports during the height of the global pandemic in Canada greatly outpaced that of other developed countries, enough to actually raise household incomes at a time when the economy was in free fall.

A new report by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) shows that household incomes in Canada increased by 11 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, while incomes in other developed nations including the U.K., France and Germany decreased. The boost came despite a more than 10 per cent contraction in the Canadian economy over the same period, shortly after strict lockdowns were introduced across the country.

The figures underscore the immense scale of the Liberal government’s emergency aid spending, prompting economists to contemplate what level of fiscal response is necessary to cushion the Canadian public against economic fallout.

“It raises a very serious question about whether we overdid it,” said Jack Mintz, economist at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. “It’s one thing to help people bridge the pandemic because they lost income. But it’s another thing to actually make them richer.”

The report by the OECD comes weeks after another report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that Canada’s deficit as a percentage of GDP will be the single-largest of any country in 2021, at 19.9 per cent. The U.S. (18.7 per cent) and U.K. (16.5 per cent) are expected to run the next-largest shortfalls.

Experts are widely in agreement that some level of fiscal support was needed in order to keep businesses afloat and replace the lost income of unemployed people. But Mintz and others have long suggested that federal support programs could have already been trimmed back as a way to incentivize workers and not avoid overspending.

“In terms of lost income, the appropriate thing is probably to be flat,” he said. “But certainly not increasing.”

• Economists call for improved spending transparency as Trudeau again refuses to set fiscal anchor
• Expansion of COVID-19 programs the latest example of Ottawa's struggle to wind down spending
• Trudeau outlines $19 billion in COVID-19 relief spending for provinces and municipalities

The Liberal government introduced a number of emergency programs early in the pandemic, widely supported by businesses and the general public. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) gave unemployed people $2,000 per month, while the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) paid up to 75 per cent of wages for businesses as a way to keep people employed.

Combined, the two projects will cost over $150 billion by the end of December, according to government estimates. The federal deficit is  projected to reach $350 billion in 2021, then decline sharply in the following years.

“Canada was more generous than most other countries in providing quick stimulus,” said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC.

Economists are broadly in agreement that current spending measures will need to be wound down sooner rather than later, or risk slowing an eventual recovery. Ottawa in late summer made moves to reduce payments under the CERB from $2,000 to $1,600 per month, but ultimately abandoned those plans after facing pressure from the NDP.

It has since transitioned to the new $2,000-per-month Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), which Shenfeld said includes some provisions that should better incentivize return to work.

“As the economy improves, ideally, we want to gradually make unemployment benefits less available and less tempting, and build in more incentive to accept to work,” he said.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has offered few details about how she will sketch out a return to pre-pandemic budgets, and has declined to provide an updated fiscal anchor in her upcoming budget update.

In her first major speech as finance minister in late October, Freeland did hint that spending would eventually be wound down.

“Our fiscally expansive approach to fighting the coronavirus cannot and will not be infinite,” she said.

The OECD report also had the United States posting a rise in household incomes in the second quarter at 10 per cent, largely due to the emergency CARES Act passed by Donald Trump in April. However, the OECD said the bump is likely to be “temporary” as new fiscal spending plans remain stuck in Congress.

Other countries posting higher incomes included Ireland (3.6 per cent), Australia (2.7 per cent) and Finland (1.1 per cent). Italy saw a seven per cent drop, while household incomes in the U.K. dropped 3.5 per cent.

• Email: jsnyder@postmedia.com | Twitter: jesse_snyder

OTTAWA – With Canada on track to see as many as 10,000 cases per day by December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pleaded with Canadians Friday to hunker down before the COVID-19 pandemic starts to exceed government resources.

“We have to reverse these trends now,” he said. “We must flatten the curve now before it gets any worse.”

Cases have been rising in most parts of the country for weeks and Canada set a new daily record of new diagnoses on Thursday.

More than 282,000 people have been diagnosed with the virus and an average of 55 people are dying from it everyday.

On Thursday alone, nearly 5,000 cases were found and 83 people in the country died.

“Fires are burning in so many different areas and right now is the time to get those under control,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer.

She said at the current pace Canada could expect to see 10,000 cases per day by early December. She said that will further strain health care resources that are already struggling with the surge.

“Hospitals are being forced to make the difficult decision to cancel elective surgeries and procedures in areas of the country, and healthcare workers everywhere are exhausted,” she said.

• COVID-19 testing numbers down more than 25 per cent, even as positive cases soar
• 'COVID is starting to win,' Jason Kenney warns as he stops short of severe restrictions in Alberta
• Industry groups call for tailor-made COVID-19 programs to support hard-hit sectors in second wave

Trudeau held a call with Canada’s premiers Thursday night. Earlier this week, he encouraged them not to be hesitant in imposing new restrictions and lockdowns if the data is moving in the right direction and said the federal government would be there to support businesses and workers.

He said acting early is much better than waiting.

“The science, the body of evidence that’s out there, across the country, and indeed around the world shows clearly what best practices are moving quickly and firmly, is far better than delaying and hoping that individual behaviour will itself bend the curve.”

Trudeau did offer Red Cross support to Manitoba, which has been hit particularly badly with a second wave and needs help for long-term care homes where dozens have died. Trudeau left it out of his initial statement about the meeting, but he also agreed to meet with provincial premiers in early December to discuss provincial health transfers. The provinces have called for the federal government to permanently pay for more of the cost of health care.

The federal government has offered additional testing capacity and contact tracing as well as access to PPE, but Trudeau said if cases escalate the government does not have unlimited resources to help.

“There is a threshold beyond which, when the cases spike too much, we might have to make really difficult choices about where to deploy the limited resources we have,” he said.

A source familiar with the conversation said the premiers were generally in agreement on the need for more restrictions to slow the virus, with new restrictions likely coming to hard hit provinces in the next few days.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford moved on Friday, lowering his government’s thresholds for imposing restrictions by more than half and putting most of the Greater Toronto Area into the red zone, the highest level of restrictions.

Those restrictions severely limit indoor dining and gyms, close movie theatres and other spaces. The only remaining level of restrictions for those health regions is a full and complete lockdown.

Modelling Ontario released on Thursday showed the government could be seeing 6,500 cases a day in a few weeks’ time, potentially overwhelming the province’s critical care bed capacity.

“The impact on our hospital would be absolutely devastating. As premier I can’t accept that and I won’t accept that,” said Ford. “These adjustments are necessary to respond to the latest evidence and we may need to make further adjustments.”

Ontario’s thresholds were originally higher than many public health experts recommended, including experts the government consulted who suggested they should be higher.

Ford pleaded with people to modify their behaviour and said he is prepared to go further if that is what is required.

“You have already sacrificed so much, but we need to be clear about what is at stake. We are staring down the barrel of another lockdown,” he said.

Ford has not been alone in ramping up restrictions, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister brought in tighter rules for his province on Tuesday.

And Alberta premier Jason Kenney has also taken some small measures to tighten restrictions in his provinces, forcing bars and restaurants to close earlier in the evening and suspending indoor fitness classes.

• Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com | Twitter: ryantumilty

SeaDream 1, one of the world’s smallest cruise ships, departed Barbados on Nov. 7 with 53 passengers and 66 crew — the first cruise ship to venture back to sea in an industry docked since March by the global coronavirus outbreak.

But by the fifth day of the cruise, the ship was forced to halt what could have been a ‘watershed moment for the cruise industry’ after a passenger onboard tested positive for COVID-19.

“People are shocked,” Gene Sloan, a passenger on the SeaDream Yacht Club cruise, told the National Post.

Sloan, who had been writing about cruise and travel for the past 20 years, had boarded the ship on Saturday to see what it’s like to go on the first Caribbean cruise since the shutdown in March.

“The Caribbean is the world’s biggest cruise destination,” he wrote in an article for the Points Guy , “accounting for at least a third of all cruises taken in a normal year, and a resumption of sailings in the region is critical to the cruise industry’s long-term health.”

Standing in line to board the ship on Saturday had been a “strange” experience, Sloan said.

Each passenger had to undergo a COVID-19 test, a body temperature check, a pulse oximetry test; sanitize their hands, have their luggage sprayed with disinfectant as well as show several medical-related forms.

All passengers had been required by the SeaDream cruise line and the Barbados government to test negative for COVID-19 via a PCR test three days prior to boarding.

SeaDream also has started new cleaning and sanitizing measures on board the ships, with the help of ultrasonic foggers used by hospitals to disinfect rooms. They also installed a germ-killing UV light system.

While this would have been the first cruise in the Caribbean, SeaDream had already conducted some cruises in Europe, all of which went off without a hitch. Given the “level of rigorousness” with which the line had prepared its ships, it was easy to be skeptical of anyone coming down with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis once onboard, Sloan told the National Post.

After the exhaustive screening, the first few days aboard the ship had been “surprisingly normal'” Sloan said . People could still lounge by the pool, enjoying a drink by the bar, take a kayak out for a paddle or a swim. Most meals were served in the outdoor restaurant and people kept to their own groups.

The ship, he said, was built to serve 112 passengers; Carrying only 53, which amounts to 47 per cent of capacity, made it easier for passengers to maintain social distancing, as requested by staff.

Unlike in pre-COVID times, most activities off the ship would be planned on islands where passengers wouldn’t meet locals. Passengers were also required to have their temperature checked daily by staff — a reminder, Sloan wrote, of the pandemic.

Update: @SeaDreamYC has tightened its mask-wearing rules, with passengers now required to wear a mask on its ships when they can’t social distance from other passengers. The line already has a months-long track record keeping #covid off ships through frequent testing. #SeaDream pic.twitter.com/NrF7cAx4pR

— Gene Sloan (@CruiseLog) November 10, 2020

Initially, passengers were not asked to wear masks onboard the ship, a move that generated some controversy among those who saw photos of the cruise posted by passengers on their social media accounts. The cruise staff had initially reasoned that masks were not needed due to the rigorous testing passengers prior to casting off, but by Monday night had announced a change in policy that mandated masks be worn at all times.

Not all passengers were happy about the change, Sloan wrote, with some telling him that they had specifically booked the cruise because it did not require mask-wearing. However, in hindsight, not wearing a mask might have made it more likely for COVID-19 to be transmitted among the guests, Sloan said.

It’s still unclear how the virus found its way on to the ship.

Torbjorn Lund, the ship’s captain, informed passengers during a ship-wide intercom address on Wednesday afternoon that a passenger has tested positive for COVID-19. All passengers were asked to isolate in their cabins for the next 24 hours as medical teams came onboard and went door-to-door to test all passengers for any virus spread.

Sloan, who was standing outside his cabin when he heard the announcement, said he slipped into his room without seeing any of the other passengers. But, based on the few he spoke with via email during isolation, he noted that people appeared to be a “little shocked”, but not angry.

Quarantine lunch has arrived and, well, this is kind of amazing. How did they pull this off within two hours of a shipwide lockdown? #SeaDream @SeaDreamYC @thepointsguy pic.twitter.com/NqdIw3KMLu

— Gene Sloan (@CruiseLog) November 11, 2020

“The few people I talked to seemed to understand the necessity for a quarantine … to shut this kind of thing down,” he said. He commended ship staff for their smooth handling of the situation, from immediate testing to ensuring all passengers still got a gourmet lunch and dinner, delivered to their door, without having to interact with crew.

The seven day cruise, he said, was immediately cancelled and the ship docked at its home port in Barbados on Wednesday night.

There, another four people tested positive and passengers remained quarantined on the ship Thursday afternoon.

Sloan said the further four cases had been travelling with the original passenger to test positive.

The situation is ‘unfortunate’, he said, because the cruise line put a lot of work into a strategy for all worst-case scenarios. “They’ve spent a lot of time figuring out not just how to keep (COVID-19) off the ships, but if it gets on the ship, how to shut it down.”

Not only is North Korea building a submarine capable of firing ballistic missiles, the hermit kingdom also appears to be training military dolphins to do its underwater bidding.

New satellite images obtained by the United States Naval Institute (USNI), a non-profit, appear to reveal dolphin pens off the coast of Nampo, a naval base and port city in South Pyongan Province. The apparent animal pens are floating between a shipyard and a coal loading pier, with naval units based nearby.

Satellite images suggest a dolphin training program has existed at Nampo since at least October 2015, USNI reported , adding that the dolphins appear to be bred at a second site, on the edge of town, which has existed since October 2016. The program may be part of Kim Jong Un’s broader modernization of North Korea’s navy, USNI reported.

New Evidence Suggests North Korea has a Naval Marine Mammal Program - USNI Newshttps://t.co/LPXTOXVWJ0 pic.twitter.com/m7lA3eemnZ

— U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute) November 12, 2020

What makes the animals so useful is their sensory and diving capabilities. A dolphin’s natural sonar is superior to man-made devices and they can be trained to hunt for mines, recover equipment and stop hostile swimmers and divers.

USNI reported that it is possible that the animal pens in the satellite images are actually fish farms, which are increasingly common in North Korea, but they look different than those in other areas of the country.

North Korea would not be the first nation to try to weaponize dolphins.

The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program has been training bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions since the 1960s, but it was only in the early 1990s that the program was declassified.

Canada does not use aquatic animals in its military operations and apparently has no plans to do so, The Canadian Press reported after Canadian soldiers got a chance, in 2011, to train with bomb-detecting dolphins during a U.S. military exercise off the coast of British Columbia.

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, navy dolphins helped U.S. forces clear anti-ship mines and underwater booby traps planted in the port of Umm Qasr by Saddam Hussein’s forces.

In 2016 the Russian military spent $33,750 to purchase five bottlenose dolphins . Of course, Russia refused to say at the time what it planned to do with the dolphins, but the country’s military has a history of training marine mammals.

The Soviet Union had a dolphin unit at a seaport near Sevastopol in Crimea, but when it collapsed, the training facility was placed under the control of Ukraine. The dolphin program was reportedly restarted in 2012, and when Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 the Russian military assumed control of the training facility.

A declassified 1976 report by the CIA notes that the Soviet Union launched its marine mammal training program in response to the success of the U.S. one.

The document also notes the exceptional capabilities of dolphins and other marine mammals, which have been trained to locate objects, place packages on moving targets, and deliver objects to submerged divers.

“Marine mammals can perform operational tasks which are well beyond even a trained frogman’s capabilities. A man with swim flippers can maintain a speed of four to five knots for several minutes in quiet water; a dolphin can cruise at five to six knots for several hours and sprint to a speed of 15 to 20 knots for several minutes,” the report says.

“Animals could be trained to attack a magnetic package to a submarine which could record information, transmit a tracking signal or explode.”

In fact, according to a 2017 study , a lack of hands may be the only thing holding dolphins back from world domination.

Despite the apparent success of marine mammal programs, the use of animals in military operations remains controversial.

Animal-rights groups have criticized the U.S. military for putting dolphins in harm’s way. Dolphins are big enough to set off a mine by accident, although the navy insists the animals never get close enough to the explosives to detonate them.

With files from The Canadian Press and National Post Staff

Peter Sutcliffe, the notorious British serial killer known as the ‘Yorkshire Ripper,’ has died after contracting Covid-19.

Sutcliffe, who murdered at least 13 women across the north of England in the late 1970s, died at University Hospital of North Durham, England, a U.K. Prison Service spokesman confirmed to Sky News on Friday.

The 74-year-old, who also had a number of other underlying health problems, reportedly refused treatment for Covid-19.

Sutcliffe terrorized West Yorkshire and Manchester from 1975, sparking one of Britain’s biggest manhunts which finally concluded in 1981 with his conviction for the murders of 13 women.

Sutcliffe said at his trial at the Old Bailey, the Guardian reported: “It was just a miracle they did not apprehend me earlier – they had all the facts.”

He spent three decades at the Broadmoor Hospital high-security psychiatric unit before being moved to Her Majesty’s Prison Frankland in County Durham in 2016.

Sutcliffe is known to have started attacking women in the late 1960s but his first known murder took place in 1975 when he killed 28-year-old mother of four Wilma McCann – and he remained at large until his arrest in 1980.

McCann’s son Richard told Sky News:

“He will go down as one of those figures from the 20th century in the same league I suppose as someone like Hitler.

“It was never just a drunken fight, he went out there with tools and implements and he murdered people again and again and again and again.”

An official cause of death has yet to be confirmed, pending a coroner’s examination.

OTTAWA — Industry groups are calling on Ottawa to tailor its COVID-19 emergency support programs, as a new round of pandemic lockdowns could trigger widespread bankruptcies in hard-hit sectors.

Speaking to the Senate’s national finance committee on Thursday, business representatives warned that hotels, restaurants, retail and tourism services are getting particularly pinched after some provinces re-introduced stricter social distancing requirements.

The lobby groups called for tailor-made supports for those hard-hit sectors, referencing what some economists have called the “k-shaped recovery,” in which the economy is divided between industries that have either almost returned to normal, or who remain badly constrained by lockdowns.

“I’m worried we could lose at least half of this industry,” said Susie Grynol, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of Canada. She cited an internal survey that found 60 per cent of executives fear going out of business by Christmas.

Her comments came hours after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland testified before the same committee, during which she faced criticism from several senators for her ministry’s failure to provide regular, detailed accounts of emergency spending during the pandemic.

Freeland was discussing Bill C-9, which introduces several new measures to help small businesses withstand the pandemic, including a new rent relief program. Industry has for months expressed appreciation for private sector supports from Ottawa, including the introduction of a wage subsidy program that originally covered 75 per cent of labour costs for firms of various sizes.

But Grynol and others said shrewder programs would be needed in order to stem widespread bankruptcies in hotels and elsewhere.

“Since this summer, our economic circumstances have worsened,” Grynol said. “Yet the wage subsidy rates have declined. Our recommendation is that [the wage subsidy] be raised to 85 per cent for the hardest hit, and that the government stop supporting businesses with minimal revenue loss, whose survival is not at risk.”

• Opinion: Make second-wave support for small business targeted and workable
• Second wave of layoffs looms as COVID cases climb, straining hard-hit industries

She also called on Ottawa to back new lines of debt for hotel owners, saying hotels have been categorically denied any new credit from major banks due to their high-leverage business models.

Supports under Bill C-9 favour companies who lease their properties, she said, because it gives them more avenues to access lines of capital, whereas owners of major assets can only seek supports based on mortgage interest and property taxes.

Other business representatives suggested Ottawa should begin to distinguish between hard-hit industries and those who have already begun the long, slow climb back to health.

“The focus now needs to shift from broad-based support to sector-specific programs,” said Alla Drigola, head of Parliamentary affairs at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

“They all have unique needs and these programs need to be tailored to help them.”

The lobby group has been warning for months that bankruptcies in the restaurant, tourism and retail sectors in particular will spike if Ottawa does not introduce its new rent relief program soon.

Also on Thursday, senators questioned Freeland as to why she has not provided regular updates on COVID-19 spending, even as expenditure blow past previous records. Ottawa is set to run a more than $350-billion deficit in 2021, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

“Why doesn’t government just provide this on a monthly basis to senators and to parliamentarians? Right now we have to go through various sources and try to construct and put the financial information together ourselves,” she said.

Those concerns are shared by the PBO, who in a series of reports last week blasted the Liberal government for its “lacking” supply of detailed information on its COVID-19 spending plans.

Unlike some other developed nations, Canada has yet to table a complete budget since the beginning of the pandemic, providing only one fiscal “snapshot” in early summer.

Freeland did not address why Ottawa has declined to provide regular, detailed information about its spending practices, saying only that her office would provide “considerable detail” on its spending in its upcoming fiscal update.

She said the pace of spending under COVID-19 has created a “very fast moving fast changing situation” that has made reporting more difficult.

“I very much understand and appreciate the desire for financial information,” she told senators.

Ottawa during the pandemic has provided only high-level projections for its largest pools of spending. The estimated cost for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) by the end of December is currently projected to reach $65 billion.

Total costs thus far for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) is currently $81 billion

EDMONTON — As pressure mounts on the Alberta government to tackle rising cases of COVID-19, the province has moved towards some further restrictions on socializing and exercise classes that will start Friday and last for two weeks.

The announcement comes as more than 400 doctors — joined by health-care unions — have once again called on the government to institute a “circuit breaker” — short, sharp lockdowns — and suggested other measures to bring down surging case counts.

“We have reached a juncture where only strong and decisive mandatory measures can prevent our hospitals from becoming overwhelmed,” says the open letter.

At a Thursday afternoon press conference, Premier Jason Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, didn’t go that far. Instead, they announced the cancellation of group fitness classes, team sports, amateur choir activities and a halt on serving alcohol in bars after 10 p.m. in areas where there are outbreaks, including Edmonton and Calgary.

“COVID is starting to win and we cannot let that happen,” said Kenney, who was speaking from home in self-isolation after coming into contact with a positive case on Monday. “This two-week push is, I believe, our last chance to avoid more restrictive measures that I and most Albertans desperately want to avoid.”

Kenney’s COVID-19 test came back negative later in the day.

The Alberta government is still calling on Albertans to be personally responsible for curbing the spread and to avoid hosting gatherings in their homes.

• Alberta doctors propose a 'circuit breaker' to tackle COVID surge, but no mandatory restrictions planned yet
• 'Extremely concerning:' Alberta records daily high of about 800 new COVID-19 cases

On Thursday, 51 of the 70 designated intensive care units beds set aside for COVID-19 patients were occupied across Alberta, with 225 people hospitalized from the virus. There were outbreaks in 169 schools, with 842 active cases.

Across the province, there are 8,300 active cases; Alberta added 860 new COVID cases Thursday and 10 more people have died. Daily case counts have been setting new records in recent weeks as the pandemic spreads through social gatherings, and contract tracers have struggled to keep up with the new caseloads.

“This is deeply concerning,” said Hinshaw. “We must reduce the growth of COVID-19 and we must do it soon.”

Among the active COVID-19 cases, there are more than 400 health-care workers who have tested positive; out of all-time cases in the province, more than 2,600 have fallen ill.

The first open letter from doctors pitching the idea of a “circuit breaker” to the province came earlier this week. A second letter on Thursday, signed by approximately 430 doctors, also suggested specific measures such as working from home, and shutdowns on physical activities and indoor socializing in bars and restaurants.

Dr. Leyla Asadi, an infectious diseases doctor and one of the letter’s signatories, explained the purpose of the letter was to give recommendations that could help bring down the spread of COVID-19.

“We see the toll that COVID is taking within our hospitals and we also see what’s happening in other jurisdictions,” she said. “We wanted Premier Kenney to hear our plea for help for the health system.”

Officials have been resistant to the idea there should be new and more stringent lockdown measures put in place, in part because of the economic risks and in part because public health statistics show very few cases can be tied back to public places such as restaurants and bars, for example.

That said, the origins of some 40 per cent of all cases haven’t been identified, and Asadi said, other jurisdictions suggest restaurants and bars are places where COVID spread, because they’re indoor spaces where people don’t wear masks.

“So, if they’re from an unknown source, why don’t we think that it could be these places?” Asadi said.

Other provinces, including Manitoba and British Columbia, have moved towards strict, temporary shutdowns to try and get case counts down.

“The way we’re going, I fear that by not instituting some mandatory measures now, we’re inevitably hurtling towards a severe lockdown anyway, and that’s what I’m hoping we can prevent by acting more proactively with these measures,” said Asadi.

Still, Kenney cautioned Thursday, there will be more stringent measures if the temporary measures don’t bring the case counts down.

• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson

Canada’s immigration minister is opening the doors to people in Hong Kong, with an aim to attract students and recent graduates, but potentially leaving out many vulnerable people in the former British colony that is coming under increasing Chinese pressure.

The Chinese government imposed a new national security law on Hong Kong earlier this year in response to growing democracy protests. The law makes it a crime to advocate for secession or independence and allows for sweeping surveillance. It also allows for people charged with these crimes to be moved to China for trials that could occur behind closed doors.

Earlier this week four pro-democracy legislators — two of whom were former Canadian citizens — were expelled from Hong Kong’s legislature causing others to resign and leaving the legislature without any opposition. Canada condemned that move in a statement as did several other Western nations.

“This action clearly demonstrates a concerning disregard for Hong Kong’s Basic Law and the high degree of autonomy promised for Hong Kong under the ‘one country, two systems’ framework,” said Foreign Affairs minister François-Philippe Champagne. “We are deeply disappointed that China has chosen to break its international obligations.”

The national security law has been denounced around the world as an assault on the city’s freedoms and an erosion of the “one country, two systems” approach that was supposed to govern Hong Kong after its transfer from Britain.

• Two of four pro-democracy lawmakers turfed from Hong Kong legislature were Canadian citizens
• ‘No more Hong Kong as we know it’: Pro-democracy bloc quits en masse to protest new China powers

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced new paths for students and recent graduates to apply for work permits in Canada. He also waived fees for students already here to reapply and made it clear that a violation of the new national security law would not be grounds for denying entry on an asylum claim.

“No one will be disqualified from making a legitimate asylum claim in Canada by sole virtue of having been charged under the new national security law,” he said.

Many of the protestors in Hong Kong over the last year were not charged under the national security legislation, but were accused of starting riots. Mendocino would not directly answer if they also would be allowed to make asylum claims, but said the government would not deny claims if the person was charged with a crime that would not be recognized under Canadian law.

Mendocino said Canada is deeply concerned about the situation in Hong Kong and was opening more immigration pathways as a result.

“We continue to watch the situation with grave concern in Hong Kong. And as I said in my remarks, today’s announcement is set against that backdrop.”

Under the changes Mendocino announced students from Hong Kong will be able to stay for an extended period on work permits and the government will introduce new work permits for people in Hong Kong who have recently completed post-secondary education. The government will also set a clear path for people on work permits to apply for permanent residency.

There are 300,000 Canadians living in Hong Kong and Mendocino said any travel documents they need will be expedited and their immediate family members will be able to travel to Canada in spite of COVID-19 restrictions.

Last month, Mendocino announced an increase in Canada’s immigration targets aiming to bring in more than 1.2 million newcomers over the next three years. He said there is a tremendous opportunity for Canada in potential immigrants from Hong Kong and they can help the country deal with labour shortages in health care and tech sectors.

“As our health-care workers fight the second wave, our government is ensuring that we have the people we need for a second shift,” he said. “We will continue to look for highly skilled people from around the world, and that includes places like Hong Kong.”

Cherie Wong, executive director of the advocacy group Alliance Canada Hong Kong, said the government is making a good first step, but leaving out marginal people who don’t have university degrees.

“It is bringing in a very particular group of Hong Kongers, but not the masses that are more vulnerable compared to those who already have access to immigration lawyers.”

Wong said she would like to see people able to make their Canadian asylum claim from Hong Kong, because it can be difficult for anyone who took part in protest activities to leave.

“They could be granted travel documents to be able to leave, because a lot of those who have been arrested, their travel documents have been seized.”

She said surveys her group has done show many people living in Hong Kong would be interested in calling Canada home, second only to Taiwan and ahead of countries like Britain and Australia.

China’s ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, suggested recently the 300,000 Canadians in Hong Kong could be at risk if Canada granted asylum to people fleeing the country.

Wong said she feels that is empty sabre rattling, but Canada should expect a response from Beijing over today’s announcement.

“I don’t think the Chinese Communist Party will be taking any retaliatory measures against Canadians in Hong Kong,” she said.

She said even if China takes a tough stance, Canada should keep opening its doors.

“We cannot let an authoritarian regime that has no regard for human life to dictate how Canada wants to treat Hong Kongers.”

Earlier Thursday, members of the House of Commons committee looking into the plight of ethnic Muslim Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang province were unequivocal in levelling an accusation of genocide against China’s ruling Communist party.

The panel rendered its genocide finding after hearing harrowing testimony from survivors of China’s imprisonment of Uighur Muslims. They shared accounts of their mass incarceration, rape and forced sterilization of women, and mass surveillance.

Critics say China has detained as many as a million Uighurs and members of other Muslim groups in what amount to mass prisons, where they can be re-educated.

“The subcommittee is persuaded that the actions of the Chinese Communist Party constitute genocide, as laid out in the Genocide Convention,” said Liberal MP Peter Fonseca, the committee chair.

“In particular, the subcommittee would like to thank the Uighur witnesses that provided evidence at great risk to themselves and their families living in Xinjiang.”

The subcommittee’s report will eventually wend its way up to the full Commons committee on foreign affairs and international development before it makes its way to the government for a response.

— with files from the Canadian Press 

Twitter: RyanTumilty
Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com

The Republicans may have lost the White House, but it doesn’t mean their party is battered and bruised.

With a conservative majority on the supreme court, and potentially retaining the Senate, the Republicans are in a good place to keep president-elect Joe Biden in check over the next four years.

But what does a Republican Party look like without Donald Trump?

Nicholas Lemann, a staff writer at The New Yorker, joins Dave to talk about what the mentality is behind Trump’s challenge of the results, how party leaders may be looking to move past this election and position themselves for the midterms in two years.

Background reading:  The Republican Identity Crisis After Trump

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Get ready for another pandemic lockdown in Ontario, at least in major cities. The new case projections provincial experts presented Thursday will compel Premier Doug Ford to reimpose severe restrictions, even though he has worked hard to avoid it.

Dr. Steini Brown, dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and the province’s modelling expert, is predicting that Ontario will see 6,000 cases a day by late December, four times the level of today. That’s enough to put significant strain on the health-care system and death counts will spike, especially among older people. For a politician, it’s an unsupportable number.

Brown made it clear that Ontario will remain on that trajectory without some kind of serious restrictions, although he didn’t specify exactly what would be required. Even with a lockdown, case numbers will continue to rise in the short term.

Brown’s projection is just that, of course: a model of what might happen if things stay as they are. Just two weeks ago, he predicted that things would remain under control. That doesn’t mean his warning can be ignored now.

For months, Ford has been pulled one way by those who want pandemic control at all costs and the other way by those who emphasize the need to balance that control against the economic and mental health damage lockdowns cause. The new restriction framework the provincial government introduced last week was a big win for those who argue that the cost of a lockdown outweighs its benefits. Even public health leaders were acknowledging the point.

Now, a rather large gorilla has just sat on the pandemic-control side of the scale.

At the moment, Ontario’s hospitalization numbers are manageable, and the province’s 58 active cases per 100,000 is the lowest in the country except for the territories and the Atlantic provinces. Manitoba has triple the rate and is an example of how quickly things can change.

• Doctors' group calls for stricter COVID-19 measures as Ontario sees new record tally
• Chris Selley: A little humility from public health officials regarding COVID-19 would go a long way

Ford and the province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, both argued Thursday that what happens next is really up to the public. Keep washing your hands, wearing your masks and physically distancing, and for God’s sake, don’t hold big house parties.

Maybe the latest numbers will scare some sense into the minority of people who are causing the virus numbers to rise, but it’s not exactly a safe bet. Unfortunately for politicians in this pandemic, they are expected to save us from ourselves, and if they don’t, it’s on them.

Ford’s next move will be a critical one, for him and for the province. He doesn’t need to abandon his framework, but he’s going to have to move some areas into a higher control level. That will trigger the job losses, economic harm and general public depression he has been trying to avoid, but there is no guarantee that a lockdown will have a quick or dramatic impact.

The analysis presented Thursday suggested that the partial lockdown that closed restaurants and gyms for a month across much of the province had only a limited effect on case numbers. There is a good reason for that. Those sectors weren’t contributing much to the problem in the first place.

Unfortunately, businesses that have spent a lot of money and are doing their part to keep infections down are likely to be the victims in the next round of closures. How much good it will do remains to be seen. It’s easy compare a new lockdown to what was done in March and predict major success, but that first lockdown made dramatic changes to a fully open economy.

Now, there isn’t as much scope for action. Ontario is still substantially shut down. Large public gatherings are not even contemplated, much less allowed. Even small gatherings are regulated and limited. People who can work from home continue to do so. Retail and restaurants operate with significant limitations on how many people they can serve. There is general agreement that schools should stay open, as should essential businesses.

Whatever Ford does next, and he should do it soon, he shouldn’t forget that the scope and nature of the pandemic varies widely across the province. Toronto and Peel Region have big problems, rural areas much less so. Ottawa was moving into the danger zone, but it has reduced its numbers. If Ottawa can keep its numbers down without additional restrictions, it would offer proof that people’s actions can make a difference.

Another lockdown would be a lot to bear after all that Ontarians have already been through. The only way to stave it off is increase our own vigilance, right this very minute. The alternative will be worse.

Randall Denley is an Ottawa political commentator and author. Contact him at randalldenley1@gmail.com