The fever struck Gary Lyon days after he and his wife, Sue, reached their Toronto home early last April, ending what was to have been their 40th wedding anniversary dream vacation.
They were passengers on Coral Princess, one of dozens of cruise ships cast adrift as the COVID-19 pandemic caught fire one year ago. After being rejected at several ports across South America, their ship found its final refuge in Miami, setting off a frenzied set of flights home — through Columbus, Ohio and Newark, N.J.
The Lyons witnessed a chaotic “gong show” of departures in the U.S., especially in Columbus where masked passengers mixed with unmasked drivers waiting on the tarmac at the bottom of the plane’s staircase.
When they arrived in Toronto, the Lyons were impressed by the steps taken to guard against the virus. The plane landed in a remote terminal and its passengers met masked border officials who were efficient.
But they wonder to this day about their taxi driver who declined their offer of a mask.
“We took all the precautions that people had asked us to do, like masks and gloves and luggage that was sprayed and all that stuff. But when I got home — when we got home — what kicked in was fever, body ache, loss of taste and smell,” Gary recalled.
So began a new, challenging health journey for the Lyons, two of the 62,580 Canadian travellers who were brought home from 109 countries as the federal government staged the largest, most elaborate repatriation of stranded Canadians outside of a full-scale war.
They came home on 692 flights and from 36 cruise ships, in an effort that continued until early July last year, Global Affairs Canada said.
“There were a lot of people who were saying, ‘Help. Help me to get back to Canada, I need to get back to Canada.’ I think that it was one of one of our finer moments.” – Marc Garneau
Global Affairs headquarters transformed into a travel agency. The department’s emergency response centre, normally staffed by two dozen people, swelled to 600, swallowing up offices, the library and entire floors of the Lester B. Pearson Building in Ottawa.
When countries began locking down, imposing road closures and checkpoints, there were calls to foreign governments to negotiate landing rights and safe ground passage for desperate passengers.
“Everyone became a consular official, everyone became a travel agent,” recalled then-foreign affairs minister François-Philippe Champagne. “I remember texting my counterpart in Peru to open the airspace.”
After doing that, Champagne got another call. Peru had declared martial law just as an Air Canada flight had been booked to head there. So, Champagne and his officials scrambled again, and the jet was granted permission to land at a military base just outside Lima.
“The airlines responded beautifully. I’m talking mainly Air Canada, because they have the international reach,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau. Garneau was the transport minister last year.
“We worked with them as a government to organize a lot of these flights, which they did at cost. And so, I have nothing but admiration for how they did that.”
For some travellers, the trip home was quick and uneventful. But for many, the exercise was fraught with delays, costs, and concern they would get sick from COVID-19. A year later, there is anger when they see Canadians still travelling to sun destinations.
Spencer Mason made it home from London last March, but it was a tough decision to leave behind a good IT job in a vibrant world capital. When he heard Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s televised call for Canadians to come home as the pandemic was declared, Mason bought a plane ticket before the big rush hit.
“I wasn’t just temporarily visiting the U.K., but rather a full-time employee, which made the decision a bit harder,” said Mason, 23, who is now attending the London School of Economics and Political Science remotely from St. Catharines, Ont.
For other travellers, not everything went as smoothly. Some think the government could have done better, especially on the communications front.
Sanford Osler was among the final 94 to disembark the Coral Princess cruise ship in Miami after its South American voyage was disrupted by the pandemic.
The Canadians on board had formed close friendships, creating a Facebook page and an email list. They began sharing information because Osler said the official line coming out of Global Affairs just didn’t add up.
“That was my biggest concern about the Canadian government. They were following it, they had plans, but they weren’t communicating it generally through their normal channels to us.”
Passengers contacted their members of Parliament. Osler credits his Liberal MP, Terry Beech, with being “very useful because he got in touch with Global Affairs and sent me specific information that we weren’t getting.”
Catherine McLeod, a retired high school teacher from Ottawa who made a harrowing trip home last April from a stranded cruise ship, said the government should have done more, sooner, to slam Canada’s border shut to foreign travellers.
“And here we are with the variants now. Doesn’t make much sense to me. I think it’s ridiculous that they kept allowing people to fly in and fly out.”
But McLeod gives the government high marks for negotiating the passage of the cruise ship she and her husband, Paul, were on — the Zaandam — through the Panama Canal in late March.
Dozens of passengers had developed flu-like symptoms and the ship had been essentially stranded at sea after setting off from Chile in mid-March. It was granted passage through the channel on condition that all passengers stay on board.
“That was the government that pushed that. We snuck through in the dead of night with no lights on or anything,” said McLeod. The ship made port in Florida by the end of March, enabling McLeod and others to fly home.
McLeod and her husband are staying put these days. They managed to stay healthy, but others they knew from the ship got sick.
The experience has marked her forever, she said. She has no patience for people who chose to travel now.
“I think you’d have to be out of your mind,” said McLeod.
Gary Lyon agrees. He’s since beat COVID-19. His wife, Sue, was never tested but had all the symptoms and likely had it too. Today, they both feel a little more sluggish, less vibrant, and they have a hard time wondering whether it’s just a bad day, or something else. They’re reading a lot about so-called “long-haulers” in search of clues.
“You might dodge the bullet, but then you might not. I don’t know how people would justify most leisure travel in that scenario,” he said.
During the height of the airlift last spring, Champagne said he wondered whether “there’ll be light at the end of the tunnel” as hundreds of pleas for help piled up on his phone.
The government has now cracked down on travellers, imposing steep fees for quarantine hotels, and Canadian airlines suspending flights to some spots. Champagne wonders why anyone would want to travel for leisure.
“Why would anyone want to take the risk?” he said.
Global Affairs said the financial cost of the effort to get Canadians home is still being calculated.
Garneau said the great repatriation of 2020 was a remarkable achievement that fulfilled a duty to help Canadians who needed rescuing in extreme circumstances.
“There were a lot of people who were saying, ‘Help. Help me to get back to Canada, I need to get back to Canada.’
“I think that it was one of one of our finer moments.”
London’s police commissioner on Sunday defended her officers’ actions and said she didn’t intend to resign, after coming under heavy criticism for the way police treated some protesters during a vigil for a woman whom one of the force’s own officers is accused of murdering.
WATCH: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/03/14/london-police-under-pressure-over-clashes-at-womens-protest/
Hundreds defied coronavirus restrictions Saturday to protest violence against women and remember Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old London resident whose disappearance and killing prompted a national outcry. But the vigil ended with clashes between police and those attending, and many questioned whether the police force was too heavy-handed.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said scenes from the vigil in south London were “upsetting.” The capital’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said the police response was “at times neither appropriate nor proportionate.” Both said they were not satisfied with the force’s report of events and were seeking a full and independent investigation.
Police were seen scuffling with some women at the event, and one woman was seen pinned to the ground by two officers. Video widely shared on social media showed a woman was pulled up from the ground by officers who then shoved her from the back. Several women were led away in handcuffs as other attendees chanted “Shame on you” at police. The force later said four people were arrested for violating public order and coronavirus regulations.
On Sunday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, who is the first woman to head the force, said she was personally appalled by the attack on Everard and she was more determined than ever to lead the organization. She said she fully understood the strength of feeling in response to Everard’s case, but stressed that Saturday’s vigil was an unlawful gathering and officers had been put in a “very difficult position” trying to police a protest during a pandemic.
She said that as big crowds gathered, officers needed to act to counter the considerable risk to people’s health. She added that she welcomed a review into her force’s operations.
Many of those attending the vigil were already wary of police because a serving Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens, was charged with the kidnap and murder of Everard, who vanished March 3 while walking home in London. Her body was found a week later.
The case has sparked a heated debate on women’s safety in the public space. Organizers had planned an official vigil at Clapham Common, a park near where Everard was last seen alive, but were forced to cancel the event because of COVID-19 restrictions. A huge crowd turned up Saturday nonetheless.
Khan, London’s mayor, said Sunday the police force had assured him the vigil would be “policed sensitively” but that this wasn’t the case.
Jamie Klingler, who organized the cancelled “Reclaim These Streets” event, blamed police for denying women their right to have a silent vigil in the first place. The force got the angry reaction Saturday because they refused to facilitate a peaceful rally, she alleged.
“I think we were shocked and really, really sad and to see videos of policemen handling women at a vigil about violence against women by men … I think it was painful and pretty triggering to see,” Klingler said Sunday.
Patsy Stevenson, who was pictured pinned to the ground by two officers during Saturday’s clashes, said she was considering whether to challenge the 200-pound ($278) fine she received.
“We were there to remember Sarah, we all felt deeply saddened and still do that it happened, so I brought a candle with me but unfortunately wasn’t even able to light it to put it down because the police turned up and barged their way through,” she told LBC radio.
Emotions were still running high Sunday, as several hundred demonstrators gathered outside London police headquarters. The crowds, which were peaceful, then marched to Parliament and laid down on the ground for a minute of silence to remember Everard.
Couzens, 48, appeared in court Saturday for the first time. He was remanded in custody and has another appearance scheduled Tuesday at London’s Central Criminal Court.
The Metropolitan Police has said it is “deeply disturbing” that one of its own is a suspect in the case. The force said Couzens joined its ranks in 2018 and most recently served in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, an armed unit responsible for guarding embassies in the capital and Parliament.
Everard, a marketing executive, was last seen walking home from a friend’s apartment in south London at about 10:30 p.m. on March 3. Her body was found hidden in an area of woodland in Kent, more than 50 miles southeast of London, on Wednesday. A post-mortem examination was underway, police said Friday.
NEW YORK — Beyonce and Taylor Swift had a historic night at the Grammys, where the top four awards were won by female acts.
WATCH: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/03/15/who-run-the-grammys-women-beyonce-swift-make-history/
Swift became the first female performer to win album of the year three times and Beyonce, with her 28th win, became the most decorated woman in Grammy history. She also ties Quincy Jones for second place among all Grammy winners.
H.E.R. won song of the year and Billie Eilish picked up record of the year, telling the audience that best new artist winner Megan Thee Stallion deserved the honour.
Though women have won all top four awards in the past — including Eilish’s sweep last year — it marked the first time four separate and solo women won the top four honours.
“We just want to thank the fans,” said Swift, who won the top prize with “folklore” and previously won album of the year with her albums “Fearless” and “1989.”
Beyonce walked into the show with 24 wins and picked up four honours, including best R&B performance for “Black Parade,” best music video for “Brown Skin Girl” as well as best rap performance and best rap song for “Savage,” with Megan Thee Stallion.
“As an artist I believe it’s my job, and all of our jobs, to reflect time and it’s been such a difficult time,” Beyonce said onstage as she won best R&B performance for “Black Parade,” which was released on Juneteenth.
She went on to say she created the song to honour the “beautiful Black kings and queens” in the world.
She added: “I have been working my whole life … This is such a magical night.”
Beyonce is only behind the late conductor Georg Solti, who is the most decorated Grammy winner with 31 wins.
But Beyonce didn’t only make history, her whole family did. The royal family of music all won honours Sunday: Jay-Z picked up his 23rd Grammy, sharing the best rap song win with his wife since he co-wrote “Savage.” And 9-year-old Blue Ivy Carter — who won best music video alongside her mother — became the second youngest act to win a Grammy in show’s 63-year history. Leah Peasall was 8 when The Peasall Sisters won album of the year at the 2002 show for their appearance on the T Bone Burnett-produced “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack.
Megan Thee Stallion, who won three honours, also made history and became the first female rapper to win best rap song. She’s also the fifth rap-based act to win best new artist.
Beyonce was the night’s top contender with nine nominations. She didn’t perform but Swift did.
She sang “cardigan” and “august” from “folklore,” as well as “willow” from “evermore,” and was joined by the collaborators who helped her make the albums, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, who both won album of the year with Swift.
Silk Sonic, aka Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak, also performed, bringing a throwback R&B vibe to the show with their smooth new single, “Leave the Door Open.” Dua Lipa, who won best pop vocal album, proved her pop star status with a performance of her hits “Don’t Start Now” and “Levitating,” where she was joined by the DaBaby, who was an all-star during his own performance of his guitar-tinged rap hit “Rockstar,” flipping the song for an exceptional live rendition featuring R&B singer Anthony Hamilton, a skilled violinist and background singers.
Country singer Mickey Guyton — the first Black woman nominated for best country solo performance — gave an impressive performance of her song “Black Like Me,” which she released last year as police brutality continued to devastate Black families and the coronavirus ravished Black America disproportionately. Lil Baby, joined by Killer Mike and activist Tamika Mallory, gave a political performance that impressed.
“Black Parade” joined a list of songs honouring that Black experience that won Sunday, including H.E.R.’s protest anthem “I Can’t Breathe” and Anderson Paak’s “Lockdown,” which was released on Juneteenth like “Black Parade.”
Other performers Sunday included Billie Eilish, Cardi B, Bad Bunny, Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris and Harry Styles, who won best pop solo performance for the hit “Watermelon Sugar.”
“To everyone who made this record with me, thank you so much,” said Styles, the first member of One Direction to win a Grammy.
Host Trevor Noah kicked off the show telling jokes about the coronavirus pandemic and the year that was 2020. He was live from downtown Los Angeles, with attendees wearing masks and sitting, socially distanced, at small round tables.
Double winners included H.E.R., Fiona Apple, Kaytranada and late performers John Prine and Chick Corea.
The province launches its much awaited online vaccine booking portal and call centre on Monday with a warning to anyone outside of the priority group thinking of jumping the queue.
WATCH: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/03/14/ontario-set-to-launch-covid-19-vaccine-booking-portal-and-call-centre-monday/
Individuals 80 years and older (born in 1941 or earlier) plus those in the Phase 1 priority group who are eligible to receive the vaccine at this time can visit ontario.ca/bookvaccine to make an appointment or by calling 1-888-999-6488.
The portal, which is set to go live on Monday at 8 a.m., will allow people to book their first and second vaccination appointments at the same time.
“If you’re going to be 80 this year, if you’re going to be 80 in September or October, November, please go online and book your appointment.” – Premier Doug Ford
Retired Gen. Rick Hillier, who is heading up the provincial vaccination effort, has already cautioned about delays and a potential crash of the website once it is up and running on Monday morning. That is why provincial officials are asking that anyone outside of the priority group stay off the website until it is their turn.
“For the online booking system, we have more than 800,000 appointments that are going to be available,” said Hillier. “We have stress tested the system over the last week’s here, including with Toronto Public Health, and since Friday we’ve booked more than 15,000 appointments using the online booking system. It was done without a flaw.”
“We are confident in the system itself but we all know that in many places, there are some hiccups and sometimes the systems go down for a while and if it does, we’ll fix it and get it back up,” he added.
Hillier adds the call centre will utilize more than 2,200 operators and the system is capable of handling approximately 10,000 calls an hour.
When compared to California, Quebec and other places who experienced call centre issues, “that is twice or three-times the capacity to handle calls,” said Hillier. “We’re prepared to ramp up even further if necessary.”
To book an appointment, individuals will need to have a green photo health (OHIP) card as both numbers on the front and back of the card are required. Expired cards will be accepted.
For those people who still have the red and white health card, they will have to make their appointment using the call centre.
Despite provincial data which shows just under 42,000 vaccines were administered on Saturday — down from the more than 53,500 done the previous day — Ford says the province is ready to get even more shots into the arms of Ontarians.
“We are ready,” said Ford. “We are ready to ramp up immediately to 150,000 vaccinations a day, we just need more vaccines. We have the capacity to do 4.8 million (vaccinations) in a month and we have 1.4 million coming in through March.”
City of Toronto officials say their online booking system will be offline as of 8 p.m. Sunday night in order to allow for a transition to the provincial system. It will be available to book appointments again starting at 8 a.m. Monday.
Starting Wednesday, the City will begin vaccinating residents born in 1941 and earlier at mass immunization clinics located in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto Congress Centre and Scarborough Town Centre.
Some family doctors in Ontario started administering the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to people aged 60 to 64 years old in the regions of Hamilton, Toronto, Guelph, Peterborough, Simcoe-Muskoka, and Peel Saturday. The Ontario Medical Association says there are a limited number of doses and they’re asking people not to call their doctors’ office, saying that physicians will contact eligible patients.
As well, select pharmacies in Toronto, Windsor-Essex and Kingston are also offering the AstraZeneca vaccine to residents in the 60 to 64 age group.
To book an appointment, eligible Ontarians aged 60 to 64 can visit ontario.ca/pharmacycovidvaccine to find a participating pharmacy.
Note: An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that priority groups in Phase 2 would also be able to book appointments starting Monday. Currently only those in Phase 1 groups are permitted to book appointments.
MC Hammer Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken
Recipe by: Trevor Lui
Instagram: @trevorlui
Prep: 5 Minutes, plus 8 hour marinating time
Cook: 5 – 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 tsp mirin
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 skinless, boneless chicken thighs cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup potato starch
- 3 cups canola oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 8 Thai basil leaves
- Chilli sauce or plum sauce to serve
Customers always asked about the name of this dish. When I was growing up in the eighties and nineties, MC Hammer was a popular music artist and, at one point, a brand celebrity for a fried chicken company. I recalled his Hammertimne dance promoting popcorn chicken, and hence the name MC Hammer Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken. the dish, derived from Japanese Karaage and makes for a great party snack or side dish.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine garlic, mirin, sesame oil, soy sauce (or tamari), and sugar. Add chicken to the marinade, stirring to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
Put potato starch in a medium bowl. Add chicken and stir well to ensure all pieces are thoroughly covered.
Heat oil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Using a metal slotted spoon, slowly lower chicken into the oil and deep-fry for 5-6 minutes until golden, crispy brown and internal temperature is 180ºf. Transfer chicken to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain.
In a large bowl, combine chicken, salt and pepper.
using a metal slotted spoon, lower basil leaves into the hot oil and deep-fry for 6-8 seconds. Transfer leaves to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain.
Garnish popcorn chicken with the basil leaves and serve immediately with chilli or plum sauce.
Ontario’s Transportation Minister says she was made aware of a disturbing discovery at a Toronto construction site on Wednesday night.
In a tweet, Caroline Mulroney said a noose was found at the Eglinton Crosstown Leaside construction site and police are investigating.
Toronto police did not confirm the discovery of a noose, but said they were called to the site just before 8 a.m. Thursday for a “suspicious incident.” They said the investigation is in the very early stages and officers are gathering information.
“Once investigators are in a position to share details an update will be made available. In terms of the ‘suspicious’ element, we are still firming up the facts,” they said in a statement to CityNews.
Mulroney added in her tweet that “racism and hate, in any shape or form, will not be tolerated in Ontario.”
She also said the province is working with Metrolinx regarding the matter.
Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster echoed Mulroney’s sentiments in a statement, reiterating a zero tolerance policy for racism and bigotry.
“When the person, or people, who carried out this despicable act are identified, they will be banned from working on any present or future Metrolinx projects,” he said.
He added that Crosslinx — the consortium building the Eglinton Crosstown line — have assured him that they are “taking this incident very seriously and are fully cooperating with the police investigation.”
Crosslink spokeswoman Kristen Jenkins also condemned what she called a “deplorable act,” saying those responsible will be held accountable.
“Crosslinx is disgusted that this racist act happened on one of our sites. Crosslinx has zero tolerance for racism and any kind of discrimination,” she said in a statement.
This is the second time a noose has been found on a Crosstown site. The first was last July where Fairbank Station is being built near Dufferin and Eglinton. A construction worked was fired and removed from his union in connection with that incident.
In a separate incident, two nooses were also found on a job site at Michael Garron hospital, and one each in Regent Park and in the city’s downtown core.
Police made an arrest connected to the hate crime on the Michael Garron hospital construction site.
Metrolinx spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins added that the incident is disappointing given that the construction industry has made a lot of progress since last year.
“They signed pledges and they’ve been working really hard … people are taking it very seriously, so this was very sad that this happened again,” she said. “But I think it just encourages us to all continue to work as hard as we can to root out this kind of hate.”
Mayors in Peel Region are asking the province to further loosen restrictions in their communities days after a stay-at-home order was lifted.
Peel Region – made up of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon – was moved into the strictest “grey lockdown” category of the province’s pandemic framework on Monday, following nearly two months under the stay-at-home order.
That meant non-essential retailers could reopen with capacity limits, although gyms, personal care services and indoor restaurant dining remain closed.
The mayor of Mississauga is calling for her city to now be moved to the second-strictest “red” category of the framework, without or without the other communities in Peel.
Brampton’s mayor also says Peel should be placed into the “red” zone and councillors in his city voted to ask the province to make that move as soon as possible.
Being in the “red” zone would allow gyms to reopen with capacity limits and indoor restaurant dining and personal care services to also resume with restrictions.
Peel’s top doctor, Dr. Lawrence Loh had called for the region to be placed in the “grey” zone, saying it would preserve the progress made in the fight against the virus.
At that time, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said she would have preferred a move to the “red” level but understood the region being placed in the “grey” zone.
Loh says his public health unit is monitoring COVID-19 data closely and will soon be making a recommendation to the province on where the community should be in the pandemic framework.
Caledon, Ont., Mayor Allan Thomspon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Provincial officials say while vaccinations in long-term care settings are paying off, progress in containing COVID-19 has stalled as variants of concern continue to spread across Ontario.
New modelling data released by Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Table on Thursday suggests that while there has been a decline in community cases and the test positivity rate has levelled off, most public health units are now seeing an increase in COVID-19 as regions have begun to relax restrictions.
As more Ontarians get vaccinated, focusing that coverage on areas where the impact is greatest will be important as real-world evidence has shown vaccines reduce infection and decrease transmission.
The data shows that vaccinations in long-term care are paying off as staff and resident cases continue to decline while deaths have flattened. The province reported its first death among long-term care residents on Thursday after five days of no new deaths while 85 total deaths were reported this past week across the province.
The variants of concern continue to spread across the province and controlling the rate of that spread will determine whether we return to normal or face a third wave.
An additional 48 cases of variants of concern were confirmed in the province on Thursday, bringing the provincial total up to 1,025.
According to the modelling, the province could see upwards of 8,000 cases a day by April in a worst-case scenario. Under a best-case scenario, the province could see fewer than 2,000 cases day. Under the most optimistic projection, the province could see over 1,600 daily cases by early April. Those numbers will depend on the province’s efforts when it comes to dealing with the spread of variants and vaccination efforts, according to Dr. Adalsteinn Brown.
Our behaviour over the next few weeks is critical in determining the quality of our summer
The modelling data also shows that the strain COVID-19 patients are putting on the health care system continues to take a toll.
The decreases in COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU occupancy have started to level off following a subtle decline. Officials say we could see between 400 and up to 600 COVID patients in the ICU under the best and worst case scenarios, which amounts to a “small increase on top of an already strained system.”
There also remains a high volume of postponed care and missed screening and preventative care across all sectors. As of February 21, there were more then 227,000 backlogged surgical cases while cancer screening volumes have “declined substantially,” setting up long-term consequences for cancer outcomes.
A Canadian vaccine researcher says he believes that Chinese political machinations ended a vaccine partnership last summer.
Dr. Scott Halperin, the director of the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology, made the accusation Thursday to the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations.
The partnership was originally planned to be between China’s CanSino Biologics and the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. CanSino had been given a licence by the National Research Council to use a Canadian biological product as part of a COVID-19 vaccine.
China blocked shipments it was supposed to send to Dalhousie researchers by the end of May 2020 to start human trials.
Halperin said he was initially told it was due to bureaucratic issues such as paperwork.
By August, he said, it became clear that the Chinese government had no desire for the vaccine to leave the country.
Halperin said he realized paperwork wasn’t to blame after he discovered the vaccine had been given the green light to be shipped out of China to Russia, Pakistan, Mexico, Chile and Argentina — all of which were countries researchers had planned to stage the third phase of the clinical trials in.
“It was clear that this was not … that CanSino wasn’t able to ship out of the country, but that it was specific to Canada,” he said Thursday.
“That’s when it became clear it was political and not something that was going to be solved by more paperwork.”
CanSino Biologics did not immediately return a request for comment.
Halperin said CanSino officials repeatedly assured researchers that the issue would be sorted out, but the delays quickly led to the work researchers had done to become irrelevant.
“Up until that point the dates of scheduling them kept rolling back and back and back until finally the vaccine had to be shipped back from the airport to the company,” he said.
Members of the special committee questioned Halpern over whether he knew that CanSino had connections to the Chinese government before the partnership started.
“I was aware that the founders had previously worked in Canada at Sanofi Pasteur and then had gone back to China to start that company,” he said.
Halperin was also questioned over what CanSino gained from the partnership, such as access to Canadian research, without offering anything in return.
“For the Phase 1 study that ended up being cancelled, they gained nothing and we gained nothing because we were not able to generate any data from the planned study,” he said. “It just ended up being a waste of a lot of time on all parties.”
A Manitoba man who rammed his truck into Prime Minister Trudeau’s home at Rideau Hall last year has been sentenced to six years in prison minus one year for time served.
WATCH: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/03/10/rideau-hall-manitoba-man-sentencing/
Corey Hurren will also be prohibited from possessing any firearms, ammunition or explosive substances for life.
Hurren had initially faced 21 weapons charges and one of threatening the prime minister. He pleaded guilty last month to seven weapons related charges.
In his sentence Ontario Court Justice Robert Wadden said the degree to which Hurren was armed was “shocking.”
“I find that Mr. Hurren represents an ongoing risk,” Wadden said.
“This was an armed aggression against the government, which must be denounced in the strongest terms.”
There was a risk that Hurren’s guns could be used to cause serious bodily harm or death, Wadden said.
“The deliberateness of Mr. Hurren’s actions and his intentional use of loaded weapons to make a political statement bring him a long way from a usual first offender caught with a single gun.
“Corey Hurren committed a politically motivated, armed assault intended to intimidate Canada’s elected government.”
The 46-year-old military reservist was arrested while he was he headed on foot to confront the Prime Minister on the morning of July 2, 2020.
He was initially accused of uttering a threat to “cause death or bodily harm” to Trudeau.
But according to an agreed statement of facts read in court on Feb. 5, Hurren told police he didn’t intend to hurt anyone, and that he wanted to arrest Trudeau to make a statement about the government’s COVID-19 restrictions and its ban on assault-style firearms.
He said he had hoped to make the arrest during Trudeau’s daily pandemic briefing outside Rideau Cottage.
Hurren, who told police he hadn’t qualified for emergency aid benefits, was angry about losing his business and his guns. He believed Canada was turning into a communist state.
Hurren also told police at the scene that he wanted to show Trudeau “how angry everyone was about the gun ban and the COVID-19 restrictions” and said the prime minister “is a communist who is above the law and corrupt.”
Data retrieved from his cellphone, Facebook and Instagram posts included exchanges with friends about “conspiracy theories related to the Canadian government,” as well as a “sacrifice theory” related to the date of the mass shooting in Nova Scotia last April and suggestions that COVID-19 is a hoax.
Hurren later told a doctor he expected to be shot dead.
Crown prosecutors had been seeking a six-year sentence, saying Hurren’s actions posed a serious threat to public safety.
Hurren’s lawyer, Michael Davies, had sought a sentence of three years for his client, describing him as a hardworking member of society who suffered financial difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic that put him into a state of depression.
The judge said the defence request was not reasonable in this case, adding Hurren represents and ongoing risk and should seek treatment for a mood disorder and major depression.
