Spring

Wednesday March 10, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 10, 2021

Humans are using around 129 billion masks per month

We know that personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and face shields is important in protecting people against COVID-19.

April 22, 2020

But who’s protecting Mother Earth?

According to a study by the Environmental Science & Technology journal, humans around the globe are using approximately 129 billion disposable face masks and 65 billion plastic gloves every month.

And many of those masks have become litter in streets, beaches and oceans.

That waste is cause for concern for environmentalists like Rebecca Prince-Ruiz.

“There’s been an extraordinary rise in single-use plastics used in PPE,” said Prince-Ruiz, founder and executive director of Plastic Free Foundation, an organization aimed at limiting single-use plastics across the world.

“It’s the issue on top of everyone’s mind.”

Disposable masks are extremely important for front-line workers such as doctors and nurses.

Stopping their use isn’t an option.

But there are small things everyone can do to reduce waste, Prince-Ruiz said, such as wearing reusable masks.

Kids can also encourage adults to reduce their use of plastic gloves.

There are also companies finding creative solutions to this environmental issue. (Continued: CBC Kids) 

 

Tuesday May 26, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 26, 2020

There will be ‘lessons learned’ from situation at Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto mayor says

Toronto Mayor John Tory says there will be “lessons learned” from the incident that unfolded on Saturday at Trinity Bellwoods Park, where he says “out of control” crowds gathered to party and enjoy the sunshine.

May 9, 2020

Toronto police estimated that as many as 10,000 people were at the downtown park on Saturday afternoon, where many gathered in large groups and drank alcohol as police and bylaw officers looked on.

Police Chief Mark Saunders said Sunday that while several tickets were issued to people who urinated and defecated in the driveways and backyards of nearby homes, very few tickets were issued to the large swath of people ignoring physical distancing laws.

Mayor John Tory, who visited the park on Saturday night to educate those not following the rules, also came under fire after a photo surfaced of him wearing a mask incorrectly while standing too close to a group at the park.

“Lessons will be learned, including by me, and we will move forward and hopefully do better,” Tory said during an interview with CP24 on Monday morning.

While many have been critical of the Toronto Police Service’s response to the situation, the mayor said officers have a difficult “balancing act” when it comes to enforcement.

“There is criticism, you’ve heard it, long and loud… about excessive ticketing and excessive law enforcement and the heavy hand of the authorities in the circumstances versus a more laissez faire kind of approach,” Tory said.

He noted that had police and bylaw officers known this type of crowd would gather there on Saturday, they likely would have provided more resources to the area.

May 6, 2020

“People are saying it was all predictable. I think a crowded park at Trinity Bellwoods is predictable on a nice, sunny day. This is a massive crowd the likes I have never seen and the quantity of alcohol that was there was extraordinary,” he said.

“But you do get to a point where as that crowd pours in with no fences around the perimeter of the park… it becomes a very difficult task for them to enforce the law in a safe manner.”

Tory added that the city is looking at various solutions to prevent this type of crowding in the future.

“In some parks… they draw big circles on the ground that sort of say that if you are going to have a group of people that are going to be properly social distanced, then you have to sit in these circles,” Tory said.

“The problem becomes how do you enforce that when you put limits on every park? We have 1,500 parks in Toronto…. There has to be a degree of personal responsibility.”

Living in a Pandemic

The mayor was quick to point out that the situation at Trinity Bellwoods Park this weekend is not indicative of what went on across the city.

“There were parks that had lots of people in them, spaced out properly, and it wasn’t a problem. There was a particular problem at this one park,” he said.

“It is the nature of that neighbourhood in terms of the highrises and what not. And we are going to have to take another look at that, hopefully without restricting the ability of people being able to use that wonderful park because those people don’t have a backyard in many cases.”

Tory said that he would self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19, advice Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa has recommended. However, Tory added that he would not get tested for the virus noting that there is a documented incubation period to develop symptoms and testing too early could result in a false negative.  (CTV) 

 

Saturday May 9, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 9, 2020

Ontario to reopen some retail stores within days, moving with ‘cautious optimism’ amid COVID-19

Ontario will relax some of its coronavirus restrictions in the days ahead, moving with “cautious optimism” to allow garden centres, nurseries, hardware stores and safety supply stores to reopen so long as they adhere to the same public health measures currently in place at grocery stores, Premier Doug Ford says.

The public will be allowed to shop in these stores as long as physical distancing, contact-less payment and sanitization measures are in place, Ford said at his daily briefing Wednesday.

Select retailers can reopen according to this schedule:

• Friday: Nurseries and garden centres 

• Saturday: Hardware stores and safety supply stores

• Monday: Retail stores with street entrances will be permitted to reopen for curbside pickup.

The province will also expand what counts as essential construction with work allowed on condominiums and apartments, Ford said.

June 26, 2009

“We have seen in other jurisdictions that moving too fast, ignoring the advice given on this virus and even giving it an inch can set us back,” Ford said. “So we will move cautiously.”

Asked about when restaurants might reopen, Ford said his hope is that they can do so “sooner than later,” but provided no benchmark on how low Ontario’s daily new case count would have to go before that happens. 

Although the government is allowing some businesses to reopen, the province is not yet technically in the first stage of its reopening framework, and on Wednesday extended its emergency orders until May 19.

Life in a Pandemic

Stage one of the reopening framework would allow workplaces that can modify operations to open their doors, the opening of parks, allowing for more people at certain events such as funerals, and having hospitals resume some non-urgent surgeries.

But before all that can happen, the chief medical officer of health is looking for a consistent, two-to-four week decrease in the number of new cases. So far, the province is in day four of a downward slope. (CBC)


 

Wednesday April 25, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 25, 2018

Toronto struggles with tragedy in wake of attack

As in much of the country, spring was slow to come in Toronto.

It was only this past weekend that temperatures finally climbed into double digits, ending the tyranny of hats, gloves and heavy winter coats. People spilled into the streets, liberated by the warm sunshine.

Monday was the nicest day yet. Sweet and bright; the kind of afternoon that invites lazy lunches, a cup of coffee at the neighbourhood cafe, or simply a stroll down the sidewalk.

The portion of Yonge Street up above Highway 401 isn’t the most pedestrian-friendly part of the city. It boasts the six lanes of traffic and extra-long blocks of a former suburb.

But 20 years of growth and densification has seen a canyon of condos and office towers sprout up where there used to be bungalows, low-rise plazas and fields. Tens of thousands have moved into the busy neighbourhood, including so many young families that the overburdened local schools have closed their doors to new students.

We may never know why a man selected that stretch of road for murder and mayhem. But his white rental van found plenty of targets in the almost three kilometres between Finch and Sheppard Avenues.

The attack left 10 people dead, and injured 15 — many of them severely.  

Toronto hasn’t yet fully absorbed the tragedy.

Some of that might be the geography of a big metropolis. Or the fact that someone is in custody. And the peculiar sense of relief that comes from suggestions that such an unspeakable act was driven by one type of hatred versus another.

Either way, city life barely skipped a beat in the immediate aftermath. The streets were clogged and subways packed per usual, and the hockey game went on. (Continued: CBC) 

 

Tuesday May 6, 2014

Tuesday May 6, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 6, 2014

Ontario’s wild-card spring election: Cohn

At the end of the day — or about 41 days of campaigning — will voters cast their ballots by choosing between the ghosts of McGuinty, Harris and Rae?

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath wore a relaxed smile Friday as she declared the demise of Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal minority government. And offered herself up as Ontario’s premier-in-waiting.

But Tim Hudak’s grin was even bigger.

For two years, the Progressive Conservative leader has been goading Horwath to do his bidding — by triggering an election. Ever since her New Democrats won the balance of power in the last campaign, Hudak has mocked Horwath for propping up the Liberals.

Now, Hudak will have his way. Belatedly, we will have fresh elections on June 12 to clear the air of scandal — on his (Tory) terms, his topics, his timing.

The campaign not only gives the PCs their big chance to win back power. It’s also an opportunity to erase the budget plans unveiled by Wynne Thursday, possibly the most progressive Ontario budget since the NDP held power under Bob Rae two decades ago.

Perhaps that’s why Ontario’s biggest private sector unions publicly beseeched the NDP to back the budget. It wasn’t just the welfare increases or wage hikes for the working poor, but the promise of pension improvements that organized labour has been pushing long and hard for.

Horwath belittled the budget as a grab bag that included “the kitchen sink” — notwithstanding the annual laundry list of NDP demands issued by Horwath for the last three budgets (most of which the Liberals went along with). A curious condemnation — accusing the Liberals of trying to do too much — that sounded more like a Progressive Conservative critique.

But this is the new New Democratic Party (nNDP), a once-progressive movement remade as a populist party in Horwath’s pragmatic image:

More scandal-mongering than substantive. More anti-tax than the Tories. And more fixated on the putative gravy train panacea than Rob Ford himself (Horwath’s two favourite talking points are high salaries for public servants and chauffeurs for cabinet ministers).

But the New Democrats aren’t the only ones who are reinventing themselves in this campaign. While Horwath’s New Democrats are trying to out-Liberal the Liberals, Wynne’s Liberals are moving closer to the unions and working with anti-poverty groups. And while Hudak’s Tories have sworn off “corporate welfare” (a phrase popularized by the NDP decades ago), the Liberals are still relying on job-creation grants to secure new investment by business. (Continued: Toronto Star)