We’ve learned a lot about the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, such as who are the most vulnerable people and how to treat those who contract the virus.
So why are some people completely ignoring the facts about the coronavirus?
Anthony Furey says the facts need to be considered in public discourse and when enforcing additional lockdown measures.
The Ontario government unveiled its guidelines for Ontario residents on how to celebrate the holidays this year.
In order to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the government is asking Ontarians to only celebrate the holidays with those who live in the same household and to avoid large holiday parties and dinners.
Those who live alone are asked to exclusively visit one additional household.
“I know there are many people looking forward to their traditional family celebrations, but to keep your loved ones safe, traditions will have to be adjusted,” said Premier Doug Ford during his daily update.
“We’re asking everyone to please stick to your own household when celebrating.”
The guidelines suggest alternative ways to celebrate the holidays, such as taking photos with Santa and Mrs. Clause outdoors while staying two meters apart or participating in virtual events.
People or businesses who are not compliant with the restrictions on gathering limits face fines of up to $750.
Earlier this month, Premier Ford threatened to cancel Christmas in light of an increase of cases of COVID-19. “We’ll always have other celebrations, we’ll always have other Christmases,” Ford said.
This week, the Ontario government plunged Toronto and Peel into another lockdown.
Under the latest lockdown regime, indoor social gatherings are prohibited except for members of the same household. Outdoor public social gatherings have now also been limited to a maximum of 10 people at one time. Meanwhile, weddings, funerals and religious services are also being restricted to 10 people for both indoor and outdoor services.
After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that Canada lacked the means of domestic production for vaccines, his handling of the pandemic is being called into question by Conservative health critic Michelle Rempel Garner.
While other countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Mexico will begin to administer vaccines as early as December, Trudeau said he expects Canada will see the first round of vaccines in the first quarter of next year.
During a press conference, Rempel Garner criticized Trudeau’s response to the pandemic.
“If we are behind the pack and we are not going to be getting vaccines for months, sustained economic lockdowns can’t be the solution.” she said.
“They’re not working. If they were working, we would not be seeing a spike in COVID numbers.”
The Calgary MP called Trudeau’s statements on domestic means of production “factually incorrect” and his handling of the pandemic “gross incompetence.”
Rempel Garner cited a $12 million investment in VIDO-InterVac at the University of Saskatchewan, as well as $44 million to expand a National Research Council (NRC) lab in Montréal in May.
In a government news release from August 31, the investment into the NRC lab was meant to provide millions of vaccines to frontline workers, long-term care workers and those most at risk.
“The government is asking Canadians to trust them on their response, asking them to sit at home and be isolated and to cancel Christmas plans. If the government is asking Canadians to trust them, then they have to provide transparent and accurate information so that trust relationships can be built.” said Rempel Garner.
“I think on all accounts the Prime Minister has failed on this.”
Rempel Garner believes the country needs access to frequent, rapid and at home tests in the interim.
“We can have targeted isolation measures that more effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19. Rather than asking Canadians to sit at home for months on end without any hope or clarity of how this is going to come to an end.” said Rempel Garner.
A number of Canadian journalists and pundits are not happy about a Toronto small business defying Ontario’s lockdown orders.
On Wednesday, the owner of Adamson Barbecue Adam Skelly opened his doors a second time for indoor dining in defiance of the province’s latest coronavirus restrictions.
Although Skelly received a lot of support from Canadians, a few journalists expressed their unhappiness with his business re-opening.
CTV pundit tells business owner to “get bent” calls for restaurant to be chained up
On Tuesday afternoon, CTV News correspondent Scott Reid tweeted in response to Adamson Barbecue’s re-opening by saying that authorities to “chain the joint” and for Skelly to “get bent.”
According to Reid’s LinkedIn, he has been a correspondent with the national news agency since 2011 and he was once the Director of Communications for Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin from 2003 to 2006.
CP24 editor gloats about small business getting shut down
While local officials were notifying Skelly that his business had been ordered to close, CP24 Managing Editor Stephanie Smyth commemorated the event by taking a jab at the small business owner on Twitter.
The tweet which has since been deleted shows Smyth telling Skelly “you’re getting shut down.”
Nora Loreto accuses business owner of “extreme white guy energy” and cries racism
Controversial freelance writer and commentator Nora Loreto took the opportunity to lecture fellow journalists for not making the Adamson Barbecue story about race.
Loreto then went on to say that “it’s just extreme white guy energy to pull of [sic] what he’s trying in Etobicoke…”
Far-left journalist and editor says business owner is trying to make “more of a profit”
Journalist and editor of the far-left publication, Passage, Davide Mastracci suggested in a tweet on Wednesday that Skelly was violating lockdown orders to try and make a profit for his business.
Earlier this month, Mastracci was advocating for TV journalists to be banned from wearing a Remembrance Day poppy while on air.
Great stuff! For context, "pro-Adamson" here refers to people supporting the guy violating lockdown orders to make more of a profit for his BBQ business. https://t.co/hfRxDRQ1Ad
— Davide Mastracci 🤌🏼 (@DavideMastracci) November 24, 2020
Toronto Star journalist complains about Trump hats and children eating inside
Toronto Star reporter Jennifer Pagliaro, who was on scene for Adamson BBQ’s opening on Wednesday live-tweeted a thread in which she complained about restaurant patrons wearing Trump hats and a family with children enjoying their dine-in meal.
In an opinion article published that day, Pagliaro was also quoted as saying that being at the restaurant “felt the way I imagine it felt like at Trump rallies.”
We’ve been asked to stay off the property so I can’t see what enforcement is up to but @rlautens tells me one possible patron has a Trump hat on
— Jennifer Pagliaro (@jpags) November 24, 2020
A family with small children continues to enjoy their food at a windowside table as a country tune plays
— Jennifer Pagliaro (@jpags) November 24, 2020
Columnist accuses business owner of having a “child’s selfishness”
In a column published on Wednesday, Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur referred to Skelly’s actions as “a child’s selfishness” and of having “misinformation brain.”
“This is misinformation brain, in action,” wrote Arthur.
“We shouldn’t join the people who confuse a child’s selfishness with freedom; instead, we should support our local businesses as best we can without endangering one another, and governments should add to that support, as soon as it can.”
A law enforcement bust in Rocky View County, Alberta led to the discovery of $145,000 worth of cocaine and other drugs.
The operation, which was conducted by the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT), the Calgary police and the Airdrie RCMP, took place on November 18, 2020.
Police officers discovered 1.45 kg of cocaine during a search of the suspect’s residence.
The other items seized at the residence include 292 grams of an unknown pink powder, 134 grams of an unknown white powder, 6 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 0.3 grams of methamphetamine, ammunition and a small amount of cash.
“Drug trafficking offences are magnified in rural communities and, more often than not, produce a number of ancillary offences related to addiction, such as property crimes and theft,” said Staff Sgt. Jeff Ringelberg, ALERT Calgary in a news release.
According to police, the suspect Jeffrey Bussey was suspected of being involved in a regional drug trafficking operation.
He was arrested at a traffic stop in Crossfield, Alberta and is being charged with possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking and possessing ammunition contrary to a prohibition order.
In September of this year, ALERT officers in co-operation with local police arrested five suspects in Taber, Alberta, who were believed to be involved in a firearm and stolen property trafficking ring targeting rural communities.
“ALERT worked hand-in-hand with our policing partners to disrupt a group of individuals who were terrorizing small communities with thefts and property crime offences,” ALERT Communications Director Michael Tucker told True North.
“Widespread theft like this, has a huge impact on community safety. Especially in rural communities – it shakes the sense of security amongst the victims. ALERT will continue to work alongside our partners to deliver a swift, robust response.”
Adamson Barbecue at 7 Queen Elizabeth Blvd. in Etobicoke opened its doors again on Wednesday morning despite warnings from authorities that they would be shut down and fined if they did so.
Despite a heavy police presence at the restaurant, no one was fined and Adamson sold out of food by around noon.
In response to Skelly’s decision to open his restaurant, police laid nine charges against the small business owner.
The violations Skelly is being accused of include violating indoor dining regulations, holding an illegal gathering and operating his business without a license.
“Everything went well. They asked some people to leave. They did not. Once again, the police did not issue any fines to me or any of the patrons of my restaurant,” owner Adam Skelly told the media.
On Tuesday, Skelly had opened his business despite the new wave of lockdown restrictions on businesses recently announced by the Ford government.
“For anybody who’s a fan of freedom and sovereignty, the right to choose what you wear, where to go, who to have over at your house, what businesses you can go to, I would love to meet you,” Skelly said in a video posted to Instagram.
By Tuesday afternoon, the City of Toronto issued a public health order demanding Adamson close.
A large crowd of patrons and supporters gathered outside of the restaurant on Wednesday morning, leading police to arrive. When police tried to make a statement to the crowd, Skelly assisted them in gathering everyone.
“I just wanted to bring your attention to the fact that the restaurant is operating against the public health order that was issued yesterday,” one officer announced.
“You are violating the [Reopening Ontario Act], and hopefully when I ask you to leave… otherwise there is a possibility of being charged.”
Rather than dispersing after the warning, the crowd continued to meet, with an informal party breaking out in the Adamson parking lot.
At least 800 criminals who have been ordered to leave Canada still cannot be located by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
Speaking to the House of Commons public accounts committee, CBSA President John Ossowski said that the agency is still looking for hundreds of criminals living illegally in Canada.
“The number of people in the ‘wanted’ inventory the Auditor General identified is now down to 800 people with criminality,” he said.
In July, a report by the auditor general found that the CBSA was routinely failing to provide immigration enforcement in a timely manner. The mismanagement resulted in CBSA losing track of 34,700 people up for deportation.
“Criminal cases are very important for public safety,” Auditor General Karen Hogan told the committee.
“Overall we found the Agency’s approach to managing removal cases had not resulted in the timely removal of inadmissible foreign nationals.”
Of the 34,700, around 2,800 were convicted criminals.
The report suggests that thousands of deportation orders have been enforceable for 4 years or more without deportation occurring.
Despite the deportation program costing $34 million a year, the agency revealed that it had a 50,000 person backlog in January. This means that the CBSA could not locate around two-thirds of their backlog list.
The backlog is presumed to have gotten larger in 2020 as CBSA stopped deportations in March at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is alleging that a Toronto-based firm helped Iran bypass international sanctions.
In a report obtained by Global News, ONG Currency Exchange Inc. helped an Iranian state-owned bank and other financial institutions get millions of dollars out of the Islamist dictatorship and into Canada.
Alireza Onghaei, an Iranian immigrant-investor and the owner of ONG, admitted to CSIS that he helped the Iranian elite get money into the unsanctioned world through Canada.
“Mr. Onghaei also admitted that the GoI [Government of Iran] has used his company to funnel money into Canada, and stated that, in order to allow for such a process to occur, he ensures that funds are processed in the UAE to circumvent economic sanctions,” CSIS wrote.
Canada has had sanctions on Iran since 2006 in response to the state’s attempts to obtain nuclear weapons. Canada introduced additional sanctions in 2010, the same year Onghaei founded ONG.
Rather than abandon its nuclear program, Iran has for years attempted various ways to circumvent sanctions.
Last week the United States imposed a series of new sanctions as part of their “maximum pressure” strategy after the Iranian regime increased the persecution of dissidents this year.
While the report does not detail where the money went once it entered Canada, CSIS believes that “foreign influenced activities … that are detrimental to the interests of Canada and are clandestine or deceptive.”
“For additional clarity, Mr. Onghaei stated that he knows the process of circumventing economic sanctions is clearly illegal. Yet, Mr. Onghaei admitted to having conducted such activities for at least three years.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran, a theocratic dictatorship led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is one of the most repressive regimes on earth.
Many politicians are pushing for more lockdown measures while promising to help businesses cope by introducing more spending programs.
Prime Minister Trudeau says the provinces won’t have to choose between people’s health and the economy because the federal government will step in – but can the Government of Canada run out of money?
True North’s Sam Eskenasi says it’s not as simple as printing as much money as you want.
One man has been arrested following a series of vandalisms at places of worship in Owen Sound over the weekend.
On Tuesday, Owen Sound Police announced that an 26 year-old Owen Sound man has been arrested and charged with five counts of Mischief to Religious Property as well as a single count of Mischief under $5,000.
On Sunday morning, police responded to a report of vandalism at St George’s Anglican Church. Vandalism was soon discovered at Church of Nazarene, Georgian Shores United Church and First Baptist Church.
Reports say that all four churches had a large “X” spray painted on them.
An investigation into the incidents also revealed another instance of similar vandalism at the Beth Ezekiel Synagogue.
A single man was arrested on Monday in relation to the incident. Police say they were able to identify the suspect on security footage taken in the area. Police have closed the investigation.
Churches across Canada have faced a wave of vandalism in 2020, with statues facing much of the damage.
In June, a total of six statues at the Our Lady of Lourdes park in Sudbury were decapitated, including that of Christ.
