Several provinces begin easing COVID-19 lockdown restrictions

Even though some lockdown restrictions are being eased, physical-distancing rules and guidelines still apply.

www.ctvnews.ca|Lauren Krugel

Several provinces began to slowly loosen lockdown restrictions on Monday as Ottawa pledged $850 million for the international fight against COVID-19.

Quebec, which accounts for more than half of Canada’s coronavirus cases, including deaths from the illness, was reopening retail stores outside Montreal while those in the greater Montreal area are to reopen next Monday.

Ontario, the other virus epicentre, was allowing a few mostly seasonal businesses to reopen, including garden centres with curbside pickups, lawn care and landscaping companies, and automatic car washes.

Manitoba’s museums, libraries and retail businesses – including restaurant patios – were also to reopen, although at half capacity. The province, along with Saskatchewan and Alberta, was also allowing non-essential medical activities such as dentistry and physiotherapy to resume.

The Cargill beef-processing plant south of Calgary resumed its business after it was shut down for two weeks because of a extensive COVID-19 outbreak. Nearly half the plant’s 2,000 workers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

'Disturbing, Islamophobic' tweet about call to prayer in Brampton prompts investigation by Peel school board

'What's next? Separate lanes for camel & goat riders,' school council chair tweeted before apologizing

www.cbc.ca

A “disturbing, Islamphobic tweet” on the city of Brampton’s decision to allow mosques to broadcast the call to prayer has prompted the Peel District School Board to remove one of its school council chairs and launch an investigation into comments it says are “never acceptable.”

Last week, several Toronto-area municipalities granted local mosques permission to broadcast the azan or call to prayer over speakers at sunset every day during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. The move was a welcome one to many in light of a pandemic that’s made gathering for prayer impossible and left places of worship empty.

“Our noise by-law originally passed in 1984 and only included an exemption for Church bells,” Brampton mayor Patrick Brown said in a tweet. “It will now include all faiths within the permitted hours and decibel levels. The Muslim community can proceed with the sunset azan because it’s 2020 [and] we treat all faiths equally.”

“What’s next? Separate lanes for camel & goat riders, allowing slaughter of animals at home in the name of sacrifice, bylaw requiring all women to cover themselves from head to toe in tents to appease the piece fools for votes,” replied a user by the name of Ravi Hooda.

The user’s Twitter account has since been made private.

How Jagmeet Singh’s NDP Saved Canadian Workers From COVID-19 Economic Annihilation

As the media remains silent on the New Democrats’ work on behalf of Canadians, whether that work translates into a bump in the polls remains to be seen, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues through its second month.

saskatchewanherald.com

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has received most of the press from the economic response to the COVID-19 lockdown, another federal actor has received far less credit from the country’s right-wing media for the major role played in shaping those measures: Jagmeet Singh, leading the charge for COVID-19 economic support with his New Democratic caucus.

The tepid initial measures announced by the Liberal Party immediately came under criticism by the New Democrats – particularly surrounding direct financial support to working-class Canadians.  While the Liberals were prepared to make major payments to the tar-sands industry and to big business, pressure was required to ensure Canadian workers and working class families had needed support.  That pressure was effectively applied by the New Democratic caucus – leading to the major suite of government intervention actions taken by the Liberal minority government.

Jagmeet Singh’s New Democrats were crucial in establishing the $2,000 monthly Canada emergency response benefit, which has permitted Canadians left jobless by COVID-19 to maintain some degree of financial stability in the face of record unemployment. The NDP has also been responsible for pressing the expansion of that benefit to more Canadians, along with a smaller benefit for Canadian students. Singh has even pressed the Liberals to go further, and turn the CERB into a universal basic income for Canadians – an idea with wide support among the Canadian public.

For small businesses and those employed in the face of the pandemic, the NDP was instrumental in pressing for the 75% wage subsidy that has permitted scores of employers to keep workers on staff, and off of the employment insurance rolls. Initially set at 10%, it was pressure from the New Democratic Party that saw the meaningful expansion of the program to a 75% subsidy.  However, while the NDP has pressed to support Canadian workers and small business, the NDP has also aggressively fought against unfettered corporate welfare, and sought to pull bailout money from companies that stock away slush funds in foreign tax havens, to avoid paying Canadian taxes – while the Liberal government has refused to pull taxpayer dollars away from those companies.

However, economic experts have suggested that the way to pay for the unprecedented government intervention in the economy should resemble measures taken in the post-war “golden age of capitalism”, when government nationalized major utilities and resources and kept the profits for the use of public programming, and top marginal tax rates were set for the ultra wealthy at ninety percent. Working to eliminate hoarding and keep public services and infrastructure funded led to massive prosperity in the western world – although years of tax cuts and bailout dollars for the wealthy have had precisely the opposite effect over the past four decades, permitting western infrastructure and services to crumble, and government debt to spike, since the dawn of Reaganism in the United States and Thatcherism in Britain in the 1980s.

Canadian publisher's map highlights hundreds of bookstores now selling online

Booksellers amplify online presence to reach customers during pandemic

www.cbc.ca

A Canadian publisher is drawing attention to the hundreds of independent booksellers embracing online sales during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Don Gorman, the Victoria-based publisher of Rocky Mountain Books, created a Google Map of independent booksellers operating online and offering delivery or curbside pickup.

The map now includes more than 250 bookstores and has been viewed more than 35,000 times.

Gorman, a former bookseller, said he created the map after noticing how many bookstores were moving online and delivering goods to customers’ homes for the first time.

“A lot of independent booksellers and publishers have realized that they need to have a stronger online presence,” he said.

Thank-you notes and requests to be added to the list have flooded the publisher’s inbox over the past few weeks.

Premier Ford says Ontario preparing for ‘gradual’ economic reopening as modelling shows pandemic peak likely reached

The province is now expected to have fewer than 20,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, substantially lower than previous projections of 80,000

www.theglobeandmail.com

Premier Doug Ford says Ontario is preparing for the “gradual” reopening of the economy as new modelling shows the province has likely reached its peak in the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the situation in long-term care homes continues to worsen.

Mr. Ford said Monday that his jobs and recovery committee, made up of key cabinet ministers, has begun to develop a framework for a “gradual, measured and safe” reopening of the province, while cautioning that physical distancing and self-isolation measures must remain in place for weeks if not longer.

“Absolutely in no way is this fight over,” the Premier said at Queen’s Park. “We aren’t there yet. … But we want to make sure we give people hope.”

New projections, released by provincial health officials on Monday, say Ontario is now expected to have fewer than 20,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, substantially lower than the 80,000 projected by previous models.

Sex workers say they're at risk, have been left out of Canada's COVID-19 response

Sex workers in Canada are in desperate situations due to the pandemic, in need of food, rent, basic necessities. Some are homeless and without any income.

www.citynews1130.com

Sex workers saw their incomes disappear overnight when the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread in Canada. Now many are in desperate situations: in need of food, rent, basic necessities. Some are now homeless and without any income.

Some facing especially stark realities are continuing to work — even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Susan Davis, a sex worker and advocate with the B.C. Coalition of Experiential Communities, says she’s aware of many who are still working, including a friend with three children who does sex work to top up her disability support payments.

“She has no choice but to go back to work to feed her kids, and put herself and all of her entire family at risk because of this unreasonable assumption that people who are on welfare or disability know how to live on that so they can make it by, while newly unemployed people are acknowledged by government as needing $2,000 a month,” Davis said.

Many sex workers in Canada either do not qualify for the federal government’s Canadian Emergency Response Benefit or they are afraid to apply.

Gunman kills at least 10 in rural Canada

A gunman dressed as a policeman killed at least 10 people including a police officer in Nova Scotia.

www.bbc.com

A suspected gunman who dressed as a policeman killed at least 10 people, including a police officer, in Nova Scotia, Canadian police say.

The 12-hour rampage ended in a car chase and the attacker is also dead.

Residents in the rural town of Portapique had been advised to lock themselves indoors after the attack began on Saturday.

Police earlier said the suspect drove what appeared to be a police car.

The gunman shot people in several locations across Nova Scotia which means authorities are still trying to establish the final death toll, police said on Sunday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described it as “a terrible situation” and Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil told reporters “this is one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province’s history.”

'A real team effort': Alberta First Nations remain COVID-19-free more than one month into pandemic

Saddleback said it has been "a real team effort" to keep the novel coronavirus at bay.

edmonton.ctvnews.ca

COVID-19 has been spreading across Alberta since the start of March, but the province’s 46 First Nations reserves have managed to keep the virus out so far.

The Samson Cree Nation credits measures the community has put in place since the pandemic was declared.

“We got organizing and got busy right away,” said Chief Vernon Saddleback. “We sent home all non-essential staff and sent home all our elder staff and any staff with pre-existing physical illnesses or disabilities.”

Grocery workers want better pay, not "heroes" label

"We don’t need appreciation from you for working during these times. We don’t want to be labelled as “heroes”. All we need is a better pay – during all times. We need some protection from getting exposed at work and essential workers deserve a better life too."

www.rankandfile.ca

Ever since it broke out, the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world. It disrupted and pushed lives of many into a state of uncertainty. But for essential workers, the show must go on.

I work at one of the grocery stores in Kingston, Ontario, owned by a big corporate chain. We have been working hard to keep the store well stocked amidst all the panic. We kept ordering stocks in large quantities which we usually only do during Christmas. The only protective equipment we get are disposable gloves. We have a safety tutorial pasted on the wall showing how to properly wear a mask, but we don’t have any masks. Customers keep running into us and we are exposed all the time.

Apart from the risky environment where workers keep getting exposed, the workload itself has been overwhelming. We got a $2 raise for a month for all the increased workload and risk, but the pay still falls short of Kingston’s living wage. At the time of this crisis where most of you are worried about your own safety, many of my co-workers are grateful that they are making a little extra money.

So much for getting labelled as essential workers, right?

Emerging Indigenous Reporter Jamin Mike Earns Canadian Association of Journalists Award Nomination

He crushed a fellowship in our newsroom. Now, he’s receiving national recognition for his Tyee work.

thetyee.ca

The Canadian Association of Journalists has nominated Jamin Mike for a national award.

Mike has been selected as a finalist for the JHR/CAJ Emerging Indigenous Journalist Award, for outstanding reporting done during his three-month reporting fellowship at The Tyee last year.

Our newsroom has hosted two other such reporters through a partnership with Journalists for Human Rights that includes additional funding support provided by an anonymous donor from a first-generation Chinese-Canadian family in Vancouver.

Mike said he is shocked by the nomination, considering how new he is to journalism writing.

“Being nominated for an emerging Indigenous reporter award is something that I will carry for the rest of my life,” he said. “I definitely feel inspired to continue writing and honing the best of my storytelling abilities. I sometimes feel undeserving of such a nomination, but I do feel that my years studying and practicing to do this are beginning to work out for the better.”