Canada

Saturday February 27, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 27, 2021

Canadian farmers advised to ditch palm oil after ‘buttergate’ row

May 7, 2020

The Dairy Farmers of Canada group has formed an expert panel to examine the matter and has asked milk producers to temporarily halt the practice.

Experts note many factors, not just fat intake, determine butter consistency.

The Canadian butter controversy comes amid a rise in demand for baking goods during Covid lockdowns.

In a news release issued on Thursday, the Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFA) lobbying group asked that while their investigation is ongoing, milk producers “consider alternatives to palm supplements”.

“It’s just a precautionary [measure] to ensure that consumers maintain confidence in dairy products across Canada,” DFA board member Gordon MacBeath told CBC News.

January 16, 2019

DFA communications director Lucie Boileau told the BBC the working group has not formally met yet, but individual farmers “have already reached out to their animal nutritionist to identify alternatives”.

Adding palm oil-based energy supplements to cow feed is a decades-old practice said to increase the milk output of cows and increase the milk’s fat content. Little research has been done on the true impact of palm oil in dairy.

With a 12% rise in butter demand last year amid pandemic lockdowns, according to the DFA, many farmers increased their use of palm oil supplements to boost dairy supply.

The so-called “buttergate” row took off earlier this month, when Canadian foodies took to social media to express problems with too-hard butter that would not melt at room temperature.

Agricultural experts have said that butter made from cows with palm oil has a higher melting point and may thus be harder to spread at room temperature. (BBC News) 

Meanwhile, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been sending back glorious images of Mars after touching down last week, on Feb. 18, 2021. (CTV News)

 

Thursday February 25, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 25, 2021

Ontario reveals more details on COVID-19 vaccination plan, but most won’t get a reservation for months

January 28, 2021

An online portal for booking appointments for COVID-19 vaccines in Ontario is set to launch on March 15, the head of the province’s immunization task force said Wednesday, but it will likely be months longer before many people are able to get a reservation.

The announcement from retired general Rick Hillier comes as members of the general public in both Alberta and Quebec will be able to start booking appointments this week.

Hillier said the delay in launching Ontario’s version is because the focus until that point will be on populations that don’t require an appointment, such as patient-facing health-care workers and essential caregivers for long-term care residents.

“I would have liked to have it earlier, quite frankly,” Hillier told reporters, adding that health authorities are working “furiously” to test the system.

When the online portal, along with a telephone booking system, launch in March, Ontarians aged 80 and over will be the next priority. Hillier cautioned that anyone who is not in that age group, or who is not trying to make a reservation for a person in the 80-plus age group, will not be able to book an appointment in the weeks that follow.

Officials expect to begin vaccinating people 80 years and over by the third week of March. 

The proposed schedule in the following weeks, Hillier said, will look something like this as long as supplies of vaccine stay steady:

• April 15: vaccinations begin for people 75 years old and over.

• May 1: vaccinations begin for people 70 years old and over.

• June 1: vaccinations begin for people 65 years and over.

• July 1: vaccinations begin for people 60 years and over.

May 31, 2016

Essential workers, meanwhile, should begin getting their shots the first week in May, Hillier said, with the final decision about who qualifies in that category still to come from cabinet. The task force has already submitted its recommendations, he added.

Hillier wouldn’t say when those 60 years old and under who are not essential workers should expect to start getting shots. 

“A great question, we don’t need to answer it right now. Early summer is when we might be able to discuss that issue,” Hillier said. (CBC) 

 

Wednesday February 24, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 24, 2021

The upside of vaccine envy: If everyone else wants it, I want it, too

Like COVID-19, its grip is tightening and the spread is exponential. Vaccine envy is the latest pandemic phenomenon to spread across borders and deep into our psyches.

February 6, 2021

Vaccine envy taps into our most basic instincts. If somebody else has something, especially if it has value, I want it, too. And if I don’t have it, why don’t I? 

Scarcity just feeds into the feeling. The rarer a commodity, the sharper the envy. If you’re old enough, you may remember the Cabbage Patch Kids fad, back in the early 1980s. A pretty mundane soft doll backed by astute marketing, it took the world by storm just before Christmas, causing huge demand and riots in stores as desperate parents kicked and scratched their way to the front of the queue.

By contrast, COVID vaccines are actually useful, so rarity causes people to go to extremes to get a head start on others.

In the U.S., where anything and everything is turned into a competition, vaccine envy has sparked an unseemly race to get a shot before your neighbour. The chaotic nature of the U.S. health-care system, where nobody is really in charge and vaccines are available in a dizzying array of locales, exaggerates the rush.

September 18, 2020

People line up in the cold for hours, wake up in the middle of the night to sign in to pharmacy websites, persistently call their doctor or volunteer at a vaccine clinic, in the hope of getting an unused dose at the end of the day. Of course, the wealthy have a huge advantage, willing as they are to pay cash or build a new hospital wing in return for a bit of Pfizer or Moderna.

The one-upmanship is particularly acute in Hollywood, where celebrities will do anything to get vaccinated. One producer told Vulture, “There are no more drug dealers in town. I can get any I want, and it doesn’t even matter, at this point. It’s the vaccine dealer that everybody wants on speed dial.”

The U.S. being a meritocracy, it also gives low-rollers a chance to be entrepreneurial when acting on their vaccine envy. The State of Massachusetts recently came up with the brilliant idea of encouraging the elderly to get to their mass vaccination sites by allowing any relative or caregiver who accompanies somebody over 75 to also get a vaccine. Suddenly, old people, who had been left alone and isolated since the start of the pandemic, were hugely popular.

Websites like Craigslist were soon brimming with invitations to the elderly, according to the New York Times. “I have a great driving record and a very clean Toyota Camry,” said one ad. “I can pay $100 cash, as well. I am a friendly conversationalist and will allow you to choose the music and show me all the pictures of your grandkids!”

January 7, 2021

Canadians are sure to mumble. At least in the U.S., they’ve got vaccines to fight over. Our supply seems to be sitting in a warehouse in Belgium, or frozen at a snowbound UPS facility in Louisville, Ky., of all places.

Here, vaccine envy has turned into a national psychosis, another reason to beat ourselves up for some fatal national flaw. Why can’t we be like Israel? Or Australia? Or Romania? If only we hadn’t sold Connaught Laboratories in 1989. One dual Canada-U.K. citizen praised the British response, noting that when he got sick with the disease in the spring, he received fabulous treatment from Britain’s National Health Service, which followed up his hospitalization with weekly home deliveries of tinned beans, bags of apples, and lavender soap. (Continued: iPolitics) 

 

Tuesday February 23, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 23, 2021

Biden to meet virtually with Trudeau on Tuesday in first meeting with a foreign leader

U.S. President Joe Biden’s first official meeting with a foreign head of government will be a virtual encounter on Tuesday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

January 26, 2021

“The president will highlight the strong and deep partnership between the United States and Canada as neighbours, friends and NATO allies,” the White House said in a statement on Saturday.

The Prime Minister’s Office said meeting agenda items include the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recovery, job creation, maintaining cross-border supply chains, climate change, energy, defence and security, and diversity and inclusion.

The U.S. president’s Keystone XL pipeline cancellation is expected to come up but will not likely be a main focus of the meeting. 

June 24, 2020

The detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in China is also expected to be raised by Trudeau, according to a source who spoke to CBC News confidentially.

Biden has already had a series of phone conversations with a number of leaders, starting with Trudeau, shortly after his Jan. 20 inauguration.

The new administration has signalled its desire to improve relationships with traditional American partners by scheduling his first calls, and now a first meeting, with the country’s democratic allies. 

Biden has already had a series of phone conversations with a number of leaders, starting with Trudeau, shortly after his Jan. 20 inauguration.

June 22, 2019

The new administration has signalled its desire to improve relationships with traditional American partners by scheduling his first calls, and now a first meeting, with the country’s democratic allies. 

Conversely, Biden has de-emphasized relationships with non-democratic figures that had been cozier during the Trump era.

The White House has said Biden would not deal directly with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman because the crown prince is not officially the country’s ruler. It also said Biden planned to speak with allied leaders before figures such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, though he did eventually talk to Putin in the second week of his presidency. (CBC) 

 

Saturday February 20, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 20, 2021

MPs vote to label China’s persecution of Uighurs a genocide

Parliament today accused the Chinese government of carrying out a campaign of genocide against Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims.

February 12, 2021

A substantial majority of MPs — including most Liberals who participated — voted in favour of a Conservative motion that says China’s actions in its western Xinjiang region meet the definition of genocide set out in the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.

The final tally was 266 in favour and zero opposed. Two MPs formally abstained.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and almost all of his cabinet colleagues were absent for the vote. Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau was the only cabinet minister present. When it was his turn, he said he abstained “on behalf of the Government of Canada.” 

The motion also calls on the government to lobby the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympic Games out of Beijing.

It was passed over the strenuous objections of Chinese Ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu, who denounced the vote as meddling in China’s internal affairs.

June 3, 2015

Media reports and academic and UN experts have accused China of imprisoning Uighurs in concentration and “deradicalization” camps and targeting them for forced labour, sexual violence, population control methods and sweeping surveillance. China’s foreign ministry has denied the accusations.

The motion calls on the government to officially adopt the position that China is engaged in genocide, and to coordinate a response with the U.S. and other allies.

While it’s not clear what impact — if any — the non-binding resolution will have on the Liberal government’s approach to China, it threatens to inflame relations between the two countries at a time when they’re already tense due to the arrest of Huawei CEO Meng Wanzhou by Canadian authorities over two years ago, and China’s subsequent imprisonment of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

In a statement posted to the Chinese embassy’s website prior to the vote, Cong insisted the reports of Uighur persecution are based on lies.

November 20, 2020

Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, called on the United Nations in November to investigate whether China’s persecution of ethnic Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang constitutes genocide.

Despite these calls, Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet ministers have been reluctant to use the word “genocide” to describe China’s actions against the Uighurs. Last week, Trudeau said the word is an “extremely loaded” one and he is not prepared to use it at this point.

In question period today, Garneau said the government takes allegations against China “very seriously” and has raised its concerns directly with the Chinese government.

Garneau said Canada wants independent investigators to go into China to document abuses and is working with international partners to gain access to the region. (CBC)