The Public Health Agency for the first time is acknowledging “imminent shortages” of pandemic supplies. The Agency did not explain why it ignored a 2011 auditors’ report to stock up: “Yes, there are imminent shortages or issues in the hospitals.”
A second wave of Covid-19 infections could be much worse than current rates, suggests federal research into Canada’s last major pandemic. The Public Health Agency has acknowledged successive waves may see the pandemic continue into next winter: “It’s definitely months — many months.”
Canada may see three million unemployed by Labour Day, fully fifteen percent of the workforce, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. It would be the highest jobless rate since the 1983 recession. The Bank of Canada would not comment on whether a deep recession is already underway: “It’s just a number.”
The leader of the largest group in the Senate is accused of political score-settling in the midst of a pandemic. The chamber rejected oversight hearings on federal pandemic programs after Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.) refused to allow ex-Liberal Caucus members a seat on committees: “I control the largest group.”
Google Street View
takes me places.
It’s my first visit to the city.
Wide roads, bustling with cars,
trams,
pedestrians.
Modern high-rise buildings,
tall enough to impress,
not so tall as to intimidate.
Cleanliness.
I zoom into stores’ showcases,
wonder about the bikes
along the sidewalks
(so many of them are unchained!)
A young couple
is standing by the counter
at the ice cream and doughnut shop.
They seem to be talking to each other,
perhaps discussing the selection.
A beauty salon, or a spa,
offers hair removal, massage, yoga.
In a narrow alley,
potted plants in front of every door.
Small restaurants advertise their menus
in colourful pictures.
It’s partially cloudy,
but the sunlight is bright.
I see a woman
holding an umbrella
to protect from the rays.
On the walls of the YMCA –
an illustration of Noah’s Ark, with
silhouettes of people and animals
saved from the catastrophe.
It’s a nice, ordinary day,
in Hiroshima, 2014.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
A feared shortage of pandemic supplies comes nine years after federal auditors specifically warned the Public Health Agency to stock up. A 2011 audit noted the Agency spent nearly twice as much leasing warehouse space than it did buying needed supplies: ‘It is an insurance policy.’
MPs yesterday questioned an airport loophole in a quarantine rule that allows international arrivals to immediately board domestic connecting flights. Health Minister Patricia Hajdu suggested passengers carry masks in case they’re stricken with the coronavirus mid-flight: “You can’t go to the grocery store but you can sit beside someone on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Vancouver?”
Air travel has fallen as much as ninety percent, the Canada Border Services Agency said yesterday. “We are seeing a significant decrease day by day,” said an executive.
Cabinet should reset immigration targets now a third higher than they were in previous recessions, an MP said yesterday. The Department of Immigration only two weeks ago set the highest immigration targets in more than a century: “Those ballpark figures should not be taken as a realistic target anymore.”
A federal judge has cited the coronavirus pandemic in urging the Canada Border Services Agency to release a convicted carjacker from detention. Justice Alan Diner of the Federal Court questioned whether jails were safe from Covid-19: “These are unprecedented times.”
Parliament yesterday passed a bill granting cabinet emergency powers to nationalize private financial institutions. Canada has not seen a bank run since the 1985 recession in Alberta: “We unfortunately do not know either the depth or the duration of this challenge.”
The Department of Health yesterday said it would provide guidance for healthy workers fearful of contracting Covid-19 on the job. Labour codes grant employees a right to refuse work with reasonable cause: “They’re afraid.”
International travelers including Canadians returning home face $200,000 fines or six months in jail for failing to self-quarantine effective midnight last night. Drivers must not stop for groceries, and air passengers are forbidden from taking public transit home from the airport: “We will be taking the contact details of all people coming into Canada and then we will follow up with them to be sure.”
Service Canada in a newly-released audit says it was often swamped by requests for federal benefits even before an anticipated rush of hundreds of thousands of new pandemic-related cases. Problems ranged from call centres that put callers on hold, to service counter agents who couldn’t answer questions: “Wait times are highest in March and April.”
A veteran of the now-disbanded Senate Liberal Caucus yesterday vetoed committee hearings on the Covid-19 pandemic. Senator James Munson (Ont.) refused to grant the necessary unanimous consent after former Liberals were denied a seat at the hearings: “That’s a shame.”
