Canada

Wednesday October 21, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 21, 2020

As second wave of coronavirus hits, get your flu shot, health officials advise

Some local pharmacies got flu vaccines for seniors and those with compromised immune systems last week and expect a full shipment of the seasonal shot later this week. 

September 10, 2020

London pharmacists that CBC News spoke to Tuesday said many people were already inquiring about getting their flu shot as case numbers of COVID-19 continue to soar provincially and health authorities warn of a “twin-demic” that could overwhelm the health care system. 

“Even if you haven’t ever gotten your flu shot, even if you haven’t gotten it in the last 10 years, this is the year to do it,” said pharmacist Nauman Shaikh, who owns the MedPoint Care pharmacy in CitiPlaza. 

The province is rolling out what it’s calling the largest flu vaccine campaign in Ontario history, with more than 5 million flu vaccine doses ordered, 700,000 more than last year, officials said. 

“This includes 1.3 million high-dose vaccine doses for Ontario seniors, especially those with pre-existing health conditions,” the province said. 

April 11, 2019

Many of those were shipped to pharmacies last week. Shaikh got 40 doses on Tuesday and they were gone by Thursday. 

And although people are calling pharmacies and asking for the flu shot, Shaikh said most pharmacies will get theirs on Thursday and Friday. 

“I think there will be enough dosages for everyone, so don’t panic. There will be enough,” he said. 

Some pharmacies are asking customers to make appointments for flu shots, because maintaining distance between walk-in customers can be tricky. 

Shaikh will be wearing full personal protective gear when he gives the vaccine, and his pharmacy is using an extra room to ensure there is a lot of space. 

The province said it is prioritizing early distribution of the flu vaccine for vulnerable populations in long-term care homes, hospitals and retirement homes, and has spent an additional $26.5 million to purchase extra flu vaccine doses if required and made available through the national vaccine bulk procurement program. 

Ontario is also launching a public education campaign to encourage getting the flu shot. (CBC) 

 

Saturday October 10, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 10, 2020

Canadians are rich, but this Thanksgiving, our well-being is trickier to measure

As we huddle in our homes, separated from friends and family by a pernicious virus, economics offers a measure of one thing Canadians have to be thankful for.

September 26, 2020

Gross domestic product, or GDP for short, a reckoning of things we make and services we sell, tells us Canada is a rich country in a poor world.

Depending on how you calculate it (there are subtle differences in methodology), as of last year, Canada as a whole was about as rich as Brazil or Russia.

But what makes Canadians really, really rich is that unlike Russia and Brazil, Canada’s enormous wealth is shared among a relatively small population. We have a high GDP per capita.

As you sit there this Thanksgiving weekend — grumbling about the politician or irresponsible age group to blame for trapping you in your home on this traditionally convivial holiday — it is easy to conclude that living in a rich country isn’t enough.

That is certainly the conclusion of Bryan Smale, director of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing, a project currently located at Ontario’s University of Waterloo.

October 10, 2015

As he and his team continue their efforts to find out what Canadians really care about, their research has shown that being rich — under what their system classifies as “living standards” — is only a single one of eight crucial indicators, including health, leisure and community engagement, that are most likely to make us thankful. And for many of those indicators, COVID-19 has not been kind.

“The things that are emerging as being the most significant buffers [for well-being] are the degree to which people can continue their participation in a variety of leisure activities and their perceived access to those things, both of which have been compromised right now,” Smale said.

His research shows that going out into nature or a city park can relieve a sense of social isolation, as can interacting with strangers — even at a distance.

A well-known principle called the Easterlin Paradox, discovered by a U.S. economist, shows that after a certain point — somewhere near the official Canadian poverty level — we and the countries we live in don’t get happier as we get richer.

The COVID-19 Pandemic

One thing GDP does not do is measure happiness. Despite supporting GDP, Skuterud said it has other flaws.

“The biggest problem is that it ignores the distribution of economic wealth within a population,” he said.

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing is in no position to supersede GDP and has no plans to try, but for people like Lisa Wolff, policy and research director at UNICEF Canada who uses the CIW tools, the effects of wealth distribution are obvious and inescapable. (CBC) 


 

Friday October 30, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 9, 2020

Industry has known for decades that most plastic just can’t be recycled, says investigative journalist

There has been a decades-long push to get the public to recycle plastic, even though the people behind the idea knew most plastic is too costly and difficult to recycle, says one investigative journalist.

April 22, 2020

“They have known since the 1970s how difficult and almost impossible it is to recycle the vast majority of plastic,” said Laura Sullivan, a three-time Peabody Award-winning investigative correspondent for NPR News. 

Sullivan conducted an in-depth investigation into the recycling industry, and said the problem starts with trying to separate the recyclable material from the non-recyclable, which adds to the overall high cost of the process. 

“Then, most importantly, the plastic degrades every time you try to reuse it,” she told The Current’s Matt Galloway, adding that this means some recycled items cannot be recycled again.

“In one speech, a former industry insider said that it was unlikely that the vast majority of plastic would ever be economically viable to recycle.”

June 1, 2019

Earlier this week, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced that the province will work to become a major plastics recycling hub for western North America, as part of his government’s new natural gas strategy. The federal government has also announced its intention to ban six types of single-use plastic by the end of 2021, but insisted the move would support, not hinder, Alberta’s plans.

Announcing plans to reach zero plastic waste by 2030, the federal government’s website noted that “every year, Canadians throw away 3 million tonnes of plastic waste, only 9% of which is recycled, meaning the vast majority of plastics end up in landfills.”

Sullivan’s investigation looked at plastic industry records over the last 40 years. She spoke to industry insiders involved in promoting plastic recycling to the general public.

April 24, 2018

She said that “in the 1990s, plastic was under fire, that people didn’t like plastic, there was just too much trash and they needed to do something about it.”

“The obvious answer was to recycle it all, but as we know, they knew they couldn’t do that,” she said.

“It began this campaign to sort of subtly suggest and imply and even outright say, ‘You can recycle plastic,’ when they knew that wasn’t true.”

At the time, Sullivan said the industry was hopeful that technology would improve and recycling costs would become more manageable, but that didn’t happen.

She said her investigation looked at 12 of the most highly touted projects to increase the amount of plastic being recycled, and found that all of them “fell apart” within five to seven years.

“They were started with great fanfare, they got a ton of publicity … and then they died quietly.” (CBC) 

 

Thursday October 8, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 8, 2020

Ontario’s conflicting public health messages are dangerous

May 29, 2020

If Premier Doug Ford’s objective is to sow confusion and uncertainty about Thanksgiving and this pandemic, this week he is succeeding spectacularly.

On Tuesday, Ford spoke at a COVID-19 news briefing, and sounded positively muddled. 

“Please, this is very simple,” he said. “There’s rules and there’s guidelines. The rules are very clear. Ten indoors, 25 outdoors. I would really, really discourage people from having 25 people, even if it’s outdoors. Stick within 10 people. And folks, we went through so much together. And we can get through this.”

Clear as mud? Now add to the mix that public health authorities, including Ontario’s Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe and Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa are urging people to celebrate Thanksgiving only with members of their immediate household.

Here’s de Villa: “Please do not hold a big Thanksgiving dinner. Please limit your Thanksgiving dinner to the people you live with. I would far rather that we change Thanksgiving one time for safety sake then look back at Thanksgiving 2020 with enormous regret.”

September 26, 2020

Now back to Ford: “Thanksgiving is going to make or break it. Just please hang in there. You know, I have a big family and I told Karla (Ford’s wife), and she knows this, we can have no more than 10. Simple as that.”

These conflicting messages are a lot of things, but simple they are not.

For the record, the official advice at this point is to mark Thanksgiving only with people in your immediate household. Anyone outside that should connect virtually, not in person. Ford has now revised his position and agrees with that.

Aside from anything else, these duelling positions point out an alarming and widening gulf between what public health experts think should be happening and what the government is willing to do. Toronto’s de Villa wants indoor dining and bars in that city shut down for 28 days, but Ford says the data doesn’t warrant doing that. 

July 17, 2020

The Ontario Hospital Association is warning that the health system could quickly become overwhelmed by the second wave. Anthony Dale, the association’s CEO says: “There is enormous growing risk. To keep hospitals functioning like they are now, rolling on all cylinders, we need to stop the community spread of COVID-19. Much more effective public health measures are needed.”

It is fair to note that the government needs to worry about the entire picture, not just the public health aspect. The economic and social impact of even localized lockdowns, like what de Villa is proposing for Toronto and others are suggesting for all hot spots, would be huge. Many businesses, especially in the hospitality sector, have said they cannot survive another lockdown.

But consider this: Ford also said this week that Ontario is flattening the curve. Numerous health experts disagree. University of Toronto epidemiologist Dr. David Fisman says: “There is no indication we are flattening the curve, and indeed hospitalizations are up sharply over the past two weeks, as the premier should know.”

If the government is acting on advice that suggests we are flattening the curve, but more and more health experts say that is not the case, there is a real danger that Ford’s reluctance to do more could be contrary to the public interest. The results of that disconnect could be tragic. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Wednesday October 7, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 7, 2020

‘Highly symbolic’: Canada’s Annamie Paul becomes first Black party leader

October 14, 2015

Annamie Paul, the first Black person to head a mainstream Canadian federal party, said on Monday that her victory was a sign that politics could become more inclusive.

Paul, a 47-year-old Toronto lawyer, beat seven other contenders to win the leadership of the country’s Green party late on Saturday.

“It is highly symbolic and highly important that I sit here today,” she told a news conference in Ottawa.

“What I bring is hope to all the people who have not seen themselves represented in politics to this point, hope it’s possible we can have a more inclusive style of politics.“

Paul is the second person of color to head a federal party in Canada after Jagmeet Singh took over the left-leaning New Democrats in 2017.

The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has frequently said there is a need to address what he calls systemic racism in Canada.

Paul faces several challenges. The Greens have only three legislators in the 338-seat House of Commons and she herself is not a member of parliament.

February 3, 2017

Paul will contest a special election in the parliamentary constituency of Toronto Centre later this month but that seat is likely to be retained by the ruling Liberals. She came in a distant fourth in a bid for the same seat in a federal election last year.

The Liberals, who have only a minority of seats in the House of Commons and rely on the support of other parties, look set to govern with the New Democrats and therefore do need the backing of the Greens.

Paul said Canada faced two great challenges: the coronavirus pandemic and global warming.

“The climate emergency is and remains the existential crisis of our times and we cannot forget about it because it has not forgotten about us,” she said. (The Guardian)