testing

Saturday September 5, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 5, 2020

‘Why don’t they pitch in?’: Ontario premier unleashes war of words with education union leader

August 27, 2020

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is ratcheting up his war of words with the head of one of Ontario’s largest teacher unions, telling reporters that he would rather listen to doctors and epidemiologists than someone “with a degree in English literature who thinks he is a doctor.”

Ford has been engaged in a prolonged dispute with the leaders of Ontario’s four teacher unions over his government’s back-to-school plans.

The unions have said that the plans fail to institute specific standards “around physical distancing, cohorting, ventilation, and transportation” and have vowed to file formal appeals with the labour relations board over what they say is a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

February 4, 2020

Ford, meanwhile, has accused the unions of being unreasonable and has said that his “patience is running thin” with their rhetoric.

Speaking with reporters during his daily COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday, Ford took his criticism one step further, singling out Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation President Harvey Bischof.

“I will listen to the docs and the health and science all day long as opposed to some head of the teachers’ union that has his degree in English literature as Harvey does,” Ford said. “I think the parents would rather us listen to the doctors as opposed to some guy with a degree in English literature who thinks he is a doctor.”

January 18, 2020

Bischof, who has an English literature degree from Trent University as well as a Masters of Arts and Bachelor of Education degree from Queen’s University, has been outspoken about the government’s return to school plans in the past and last week took to Twitter to accuse Ford of “belittling educators.”

He has also stressed that teachers only want the same safeguards as other frontline workers, such as a minimum of two metres of physical distancing in the classroom. (CTV) 

 

Tuesday June 9, 2020

June 9, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 9, 2020

“Thousands more” Ontario frontline healthcare workers need pandemic pay: union

An Ontario union is calling on the federal government to extend pandemic pay for frontline healthcare workers, who are “risking their lives ad the lives of their families,” tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

May 29, 2020

“Many frontline health workers risking their lives — and the lives of their families — are not getting pandemic pay,” Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), said in a statement. 

He is calling on the federal government to “step up.”

“Pandemic pay is vital recognition of the sacrifices these workers are making to get us through this pandemic, but there’s a void,” said Thomas. “Why isn’t it being offered to all of the healthcare workers in our hospitals, and other congregate settings?”

According to the union president, the provincial government has indicated that it has run out of funding after offering pandemic pay to 375,000 workers.

On April 29, Premier Doug Ford expanded pandemic pay to more frontline workers which included, staff working in long-term care homes, retirement homes, emergency shelters, supportive housing, social services congregate care settings, corrections institutions, and youth justice facilities, as well as those providing home and community care and some staff in hospitals.

However, Thomas says there are “thousands more who are facing exactly the same kinds of risks and hardships.”

Adding, that Ford has said he would “love to extend it to all workers” if only the province had the money.

Which is in Thomas’ opinion, where the federal government needs to come in.

According to the union president, with outbreaks still happening in long-term care homes, manufacturing and meat-processing plants, and amongst migrant workers the burden on health care workers is only becoming greater.

“It’s imperative for the federal government to show its support for all of Ontario’sfrontline health heroes and come to the table with more support,” Thomas said. “The sooner the engine of the national economy emerges from the pandemic, the sooner Canada will be able to recover. Prime minister, Ontario needs your help.”

On May 7, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government had reached a $4 billion deal with the provinces and territories to top up wages for essential workers.

Who received the wage top up was up to the premiers and provinces, according to the prime minister. (Daily Hive News) 

 

Friday April 24, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 24, 2020

Federal COVID-19 testing program will determine how far coronavirus has really spread

The Trudeau government committed more than $1 billion to COVID-19 research Thursday, including a proposal for widespread testing to better understand the coronavirus that led to the pandemic and to chart a recovery course for the country.

Coronavirus cartoons

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada needs research to respond to the pandemic in the best way possible.

“The better we understand this virus, its spread and its impact on different people, the better we can fight it and eventually defeat it,” he said.

The funding includes $40 million to do viral sequencing to track the virus and its different strains, $23 million for vaccine research, $600 million for private sector trials of drug treatments and vaccines, $114 million to the Canadian Institutes of Health research for research into measures that could reduce the spread, and a host of smaller initiatives.

The government is also setting up a “immunity task force” that will do widespread blood testing to determine just how far the virus has spread.

Unlike the current testing using nose and throat swabs, this wider testing using blood samples will be able to track people who may have had the virus, but had little or no symptoms and have now recovered.

Dr. David Naylor, a former dean of medicine and president of the University of Toronto, with an extensive background in epidemiology, who also chaired the national advisory committee on SARS, is on the task force.

He said there are likely many people walking around who have fought off the virus without even knowing they had it. Those people are believed to be immune and knowing how many there are can help the government make decisions on easing restrictions following the national lockdown that’s been in effect to fight the pandemic.

“The level of background immunity gives us some sense of how fast we can move on easing some of these restrictions,” he said. “If a lot of people are immune then this will be an easier lockdown to lift. If they aren’t we have to be a lot more careful.”

Widespread blood testing will be required to determine the prevalence of the virus. While it’s expected to take months to get a full picture, early results should give a sense of the scale of the disease, Naylor said.

“I would not be surprised if there is going to be a bit of a range within Canada. We can’t test every Canadian. We can’t test everyone everywhere, but we will test a sample across the country.”

Naylor said even when the immunity testing is completed, there will still be a need to quickly test and trace people who get sick. He said once people are out of social distancing it will be harder to test outbreaks of the virus, which is why Canada has to be prepared to move quickly.

“Immunity testing alone is not the answer, you still have to have the firefighting,” he said. “As soon as we get very active intermingling again then it is going to be much harder to fight the flare-ups and we have to have our ‘A’ game in testing and tracing.”

As of Thursday, Canada had tested 620,000 people for the virus and reported more than 41,500 cases, including 2,141 deaths. (National Post) 

 

Saturday June 24, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 24, 2017

Queen Park Priorities

What is going wrong with math in Grades 4 to 6 in Hamilton, Burlington and across the province?

September 3, 2013

Perhaps the hardest equation to solve right now in Ontario’s education system is why half of Grade 6 students are failing to meet the provincial standard with fewer succeeding each year. 

“I wish I had the golden answer,” said Ian VanderBurgh, the director of the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at the University of Waterloo.

“We need to figure out why.”

In the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) a mere 42 per cent of students had the mathematics skills the Ontario curriculum expects by the end of Grade 6, according to provincial tests from 2014 to 2016. 

To compare, 74 per cent of those same students meet the benchmark in reading and 73 per cent in writing. 

Year-by-year results show the problem in Grade 6 math is only getting worse.

“It’s time to do a reset,” said Peter Sovran, executive superintendent of student achievement and school operations at the HWDSB. 

“We are not pleased and I don’t think anyone should be pleased in the province.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

June 23, 2016

Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has a public opinion problem at home, and elsewhere.

She scored the highest disapproval ratings among any Canadian premier in Ontario, and across Canada, in a Mainstreet Research/Postmedia poll that was released on Thursday.

In Ontario, Wynne scored a 70 per cent disapproval rating and a 19 per cent approval rating.

Her disapproval rating was close to last year’s, when she scored 71 per cent in Ontario. Her approval rating in her home province was unchanged from 2016.

Wynne scored the strongest disapproval rating nationally, hitting 48 per cent, which put her just above Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard. (Source: Global News)