‘We should respect each other’: South Africa says notification not given before travel ban imposed
It’s not just the decision to implement a controversial travel ban on southern African nations, which since has been revoked, but the way in which Canada went about announcing the plan, that irked South Africa’s envoy in Ottawa. Outgoing South African High Commissioner Sibongiseni Dlamini-Mntambo said she learned that Ottawa was imposing the ban not […]
Anti-vaxxers are doing no one any good
KAMOURASKA, QUE.—A friend of mine recently posted the following note on Facebook: “I phoned my cousin on Boxing Day to wish her a belated Merry Christmas. The exhausted voice at the other end of the line politely accepted my pitiful attempt at good cheer. As a Quebec public health nurse, she had been working straight […]
Cowardly Canadian leaders point fingers at the unvaccinated
CALGARY—Imagine a Black woman who writes about, and advocates against, inequities, who rails against injustice, with an emphasis on the Black experience siding with the anti-vaxxers she cussed only a few months prior. But here we are. Politics makes for strange bedfellows. On Jan. 11, Quebec Premier François Legault announced a tax on the unvaccinated […]
Taxing anti-vaxxers ‘controversial,’ but will help vaccinate more Quebecers and could help Legault’s October re-election bid, say some pollsters
Quebec Premier François Legault’s decision to tax anti-vaxxers is “controversial,” but it will help vaccinate more Quebecers and will assist the Quebec premier in his October re-election campaign, say some pollsters. “To be blunt, he has zero risk from this in Quebec,” said Ekos president Frank Graves, in an interview with The Hill Times. “It’s nothing […]
Mandatory vaccines ‘politically risky’ and ‘a last resort,’ say experts
Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said last week that he expected the provinces and territories to soon begin discussions about introducing mandatory vaccination policies as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 paralyzes parts of the country. “What we see now is that our health care system in Canada is fragile, our people are tired, and the […]
Instead of fining the unvaccinated, let’s fine the politicians who fan the flames
OTTAWA—Quebec Premier François Legault is forging a unique approach again: fine the unvaccinated. And immediately voices rise up in horror across the country to this affront to our Canadian way of being! The idea of fining the anti-vaxxers is bad policy. It’s punitive without fair trial so potentially infringes on human rights. It will cost […]
Omicron’s political impact
OAKVILLE, ONT.—The Omicron COVID surge reminds me a lot of the Vietnam War’s Tet offensive. What do I mean by making such a crazy comparison? Well, what the Omicron variant and the Tet offensive have in common is they both seriously undermined the “We’re Winning the War” propaganda put out by government officials. Allow me […]
‘We’ll have to put the light on it’: politicos and privacy experts urge investigation into PHAC’s collection of cellphone data
The Public Health Agency of Canada’s plan to continue using “de-identified” cellphone data to track Canadians’ pandemic travel patterns lacks transparency, accountability, and needs to be put under closer scrutiny, according to privacy experts and a Conservative and Bloc Québécois MP. Last month, the agency (PHAC) revealed that it collected and used mobility data, such […]
Locked down and locked in: federal inmates face renewed isolation as COVID outbreaks sweep prisons
Facing an “isolation within isolation,” as federal prisons lockdown in the face of another wave of COVID-19 outbreaks, prisoners are caught in a state of suspension, where progress on correctional plans, and accordingly, the ability to apply for parole and be released, is halted as well, experts say. These inmates are facing up to 23 […]
The end goal? Getting to the finish line with few political hurdles
OTTAWA—It is 2022. For now, optimism is taking a back seat to Omicron. Frustration rules among many of us. If there is light at the end of the tunnel it is still being obscured by a COVID fog bank. Being that moribund is like creating my own emotional prison—time for a jail break. At the […]
