It has been over a year since the province introduced an extension on renewing Ontario driver’s licences, and the extension remains in place.
Documents that have expired on or after March 1, 2020 remain valid and legal past the expiry, until further notice. This includes your licence plate sticker, driver’s licence, Ontario photo card and accessible parking permit.
The Ministry of Transportation says recognizing that Ontario will be facing COVID-19 for some time and in an effort to limit in-person interactions at Service Ontario locations, the province is also temporarily waiving the driver’s licence renewal requirements for seniors aged 80 years and over so they can renew their licences online.
The requirement for people to update their driver’s licence photo is also waived so drivers have the option to renew their licences online.
Despite the extension, the province says it strongly encourages everyone to renew their driver’s licence and licence plate stickers online, where possible.
According to the ministry, if you renew your Ontario driver’s, vehicle and carrier products today, you will be required to pay for this past year.
It says questions about Ontario Health Cards should be directed to the Ministry of Health and further questions about Accessible Parking Permits can be directed to the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services.
If you must visit a Service Ontario location in person, appointments can be booked online in advance for services at certain centres.
The government has issued at least 15 tickets to travellers arriving in Canada with no quarantine bookings, and who refused to go to a quarantine hotel, the Public Health Agency of Canada tells CityNews.
The agency says that number is as of March 8, adding most people have been fined $3,000 under the Quarantine Act. It’s not clear if that’s in total, or for each day of non-compliance, as described under the act.
The maximum fine for ignoring quarantine rules under the act is $750,000, with possible imprisonment of up to six months. Penalties increase to as much as $1 million and three years in prison should the person be found to have lied about quarantine plans and affected seriously someone else’s health.
“It is the traveller’s responsibility to ensure they have a confirmed government-authorized hotel booking before they fly to Canada,” Health Canada says in a statement. However, some people with plans to return have spent hours on hold, for days in a row, while trying to book government-approved quarantine hotels. It’s a situation that’s forced some travellers to try and board their flights without a stay booked.
Canada’s Public Health Agency says it’s looking to expand the number of hotels that can serve as quarantine sites. There are currently 47 quarantine hotels nation-wide, and some recently opened for online booking. Currently, the GTA has 17 quarantine hotels, but only 12 are open for online booking. The government’s official quarantine website still notes that its booking phone lines are still receiving a high volume of calls.
“A traveller who could not secure a room at a government-authorized hotel will be assessed by a Quarantine Officer and may be directed to a designated quarantine facility or another a suitable place to quarantine, if they have private transportation to get there,” explains Health Canada in a statement. “A traveller may also be fined for not booking a room in advance.”
Meanwhile, a constitutional rights advocacy group is mounting a legal challenge to the federal government’s quarantine hotel policy, arguing it infringes on Canadians’ fundamental rights.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation has filed an application with Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice along with five individuals, seeking an end to the policy. The application names the Attorney General of Canada as the defendant.
A government order that went into effect on Feb. 14 mandates that anyone entering Canada from abroad must stay in a federally approved hotel for the first three nights of a 14-day quarantine.
“The biggest issue is that we have a fundamental right to enter Canada and this is a limit on that right and it’s not a justified limit,” said Christine Van Geyn, litigation director for the CCF. “There are so many alternatives that would be less infringing on rights.”
Travellers are expected to pay for their government-approved accommodations, which can cost hundreds of dollars per night. They may leave the hotels once a COVID-19 test taken at their point of entry comes back negative.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation argues in its legal application that hotel quarantine requirements are “overbroad, arbitrary and grossly disproportionate.”
The applicants are seeking an injunction to suspend the order, but are also asking to have the law struck down for infringing upon the constitutional rights of liberty, freedom from unreasonable detention, and the right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment.
The CCF is also seeking damages of $10,000. Van Geyn said the request for nominal damages is to cover off the costs of the five individual applicants for their hotel stays at approximately $2,000 per person.
“The focus is not on the money, the focus is on the ability for them to exercise their fundamental rights,” she said.
The CCF argues that the hotel policy detains people without COVID-19 symptoms who would be able to safely quarantine outside of government-approved accommodation at minimal or no expense.
A spokesperson for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada said that they were aware of the legal action and that the federal government intended to respond to the application.
When the order came into effect Van Geyn and the CCF asked for people impacted by the quarantine hotel policy to reach out to them. She said that the group received approximately 5,000 letters of support or from people directly effected by the policy.
Van Geyn said that the five individuals participating in the legal challenge were selected because they all had to travel out of Canada for compassionate reasons, in three cases attending to their parents in the final days of their lives.
She noted that Canada has an exemption to its quarantine policy for people entering the country for compassionate purposes, but not for residents who had to leave Canada for similar reasons.
“If you live in Florida and your mother breaks her hip and you need to come to Canada to help her … you can apply for an exemption and be granted one,” said Van Geyn. “But if the situation is reversed, if you live in Canada and your mother lives in Florida, you would still want to go and help her prepare for surgery and recover, but you are not eligible for an exemption when you return.
“It’s strange to me that the government is concerned about these compassionate travellers but only when you’re travelling in one direction.”
Metrolinx is introducing a new, long awaited contactless payment option to PRESTO for its customers.
Starting Thursday, customers will be able to use their credit card or mobile wallet to pay for their trip on the UP Express. Customers simply tap the reader with their card, phone or mobile wallet and then tap off with the same card or device at the end of their trip.
“For the same price as the PRESTO adult fare, UP Express customers can now tap on a PRESTO device with their credit card (Visa, Mastercard, and American Express) or their phone or watch with a mobile wallet like Apple Pay or Google Pay,” the transit agency said in a statement. “There’s no need to preload funds or purchase a ticket before travel.”
Metrolinx says it will also begin piloting Interac debit on UP Express, which will make it the first transit agency in Canada to offer debit as a payment option.
Following the UP Express pilot program, PRESTO expects to gradually roll out the additional payment options to other transit agencies, including the TTC.
10,000 hour BBQ RIBS!
Recipe by: Matt Dean Pettit
Instagram: @mattdeanpettit
Well I know it’s the winter here in Canada but that doesn’t mean that we need to put away our Grills! BBQing in the snow should be a Canadian sport in my opinion!
This recipe great recipe is a classic but with a fun twist at the end just like country music band Dan & Shay collaborating with our Canadian superstar Justin Bieber with their Grammy-nominated “10,000 Hours”
*You can cook these on the BBQ or in the oven as per the recipe below.
Ingredients:
- 2 racks pork ribs, silver lining membrane removed.
- 1 bottle of Budweiser Beer
- 1 tspb ground cumin
- 1 grated orange peel
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 garlic cloves, grated
- 3 tbps ketchup
- 1 tbsp Tabasco Chipotle sauce
- 1/2 cup of crusted pistachios (garnish)
- Orange zest (garnish)
Directions:
- Cut the 2 racks into halves giving you 4 pieces. Place into a dish
- Mix all the ingredients minus the pistachios in a medium sized mixing bowl.
- Pour marinade all over the ribs fully covering them. Cover with tin foil and place into refrigerator for minimum 12 hours.
- Remove the ribs from the refrigerator still
While covered and let sit at room temp for 30-45 mins
- In the meantime pre-heat the oven to 275f and 137c.
- Place ribs on a baking sheet, ensure ribs are well sauced, cover with tin foil and place in the oven.
7.Cook the ribs for approx 2 hours.
8.Remove the time foil and place back in to the oven for another 15-20 mins max.
- Remove from heat and let the ribs rest for 5 mins, sprinkle with crushed pistachios and more orange zest, dip and dunk into more KC BBQ sauce and enjoy!
Circles Crab Cakes with Dijon Aioli
Recipe by: Chef Devan Rajkumar
Instagram: @chefdevan
Crab Cakes
- 1lb ready to eat, Crab meat
- 2 tbsp Red onion, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Jalapeno, finely chopped
- 1 Scallion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp Red pepper, finely chopped
- 1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
- 1 tsp whole grain Dijon mustard
- 1-2 tbsp Mayonnaise
- 2 tsp Hot sauce
- 1 Egg
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- ¾ cup Panko breadcrumbs
- Salt, to taste
- White pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup High smoke point, neutral flavoured oil (Grapeseed, Avocado, Canola or Light Olive Oil), for shallow frying
Dijon Aioli
- ¼ cup Mayonnaise
- 1-2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 tbsp Garlic, minced
- 1 tsp Lemon zest
- Salt, to taste
- Pepper, to taste
- In a bowl, add red onion, jalapeno, scallion, red pepper and garlic. Add whole-grain Dijon, mayonnaise, Old Bay, hot sauce and lemon juice. Fold the egg through the mixture, then season with salt and pepper.
- Add crab meat and panko breadcrumbs. Taste the mix, and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
- Using a tablespoon, form the crab cakes, packing lightly. Roll in panko and place on a tray lined with parchment paper to avoid sticking. Place in the refrigerator to firm up, about 10 – 30 minutes.
- Add mayonnaise, Dijon, lemon juice, lemon zest and garlic. Season and mix well to form Dijon aioli.
- Pre-heat a pan with oil, ensuring that the oil does not smoke. Gently place the crab cake into the pan. Avoid crowding the pan. Cook until golden brown on both sides.
- Serve warm with drizzled with Dijon aioli.
Equipment required
- 1 skillet or frying pan
- 1 large bowl (Crab cake)
- 1 medium bowl (Dijon Aioli)
- 2 spatulas or mixing utensils
- 2 tablespoons (one for tasting and one for spooning out the crab cake mixture)
- Tray or plate lined with parchment paper (to refrigerate crab cakes)
- Plate lined with paper towel or wire rack (to allow crab cakes to rest)
BuzzFeed says it’s closing HuffPost Canada’s operations and laying off 23 workers as part of a broad restructuring plan for the company.
The decision follows a deal announced late last year by BuzzFeed to buy HuffPost from Verizon.
BuzzFeed says in a statement it is also laying off 47 HuffPost employees in the U.S. and beginning consultations in Australia and the U.K. to propose “slimming operations” in both places.
HuffPost Canada says on a message posted to its website that it will no longer be publishing content.
It said existing content will be maintained as an online archive, but that certain site features will be permanently disabled as of March 12.
CWA Canada says about two dozen workers at HuffPost Canada had filed for union certification in February.
Martin O’Hanlon, president of CWA Canada, says it appears the decision to close HuffPost’s Canadian operations was planned.
O’Hanlon says the decision is devastating for Canadian journalism and continues the alarming trend of media consolidation across the country.
https://twitter.com/Samantha_KB/status/1369346927641387011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1369346927641387011%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftoronto.citynews.ca%2F2021%2F03%2F09%2Fhuffington-post-canada-closing-down%2F
The Royal Palace has responded to allegations made by Meghan and Harry in a bombshell interview over the weekend.
WATCH: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/03/09/buckingham-palace-responds-harry-meghan-interview/
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Buckingham Palace said they considered the issues of race brought up during the televised interview to be “concerning.”
“The whole family is saddened to hear to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” the statement said. “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning.”
“While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately,” the statement continued.
The statement concludes, saying “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.”
Earlier, some observers had said that Buckingham Palace’s silence on the topic has only added to the furor surrounding the TV interview.
The interview, which aired Sunday night in the U.S. and a day later in Britain, has rocked the royal family and divided people around the world. While many say the allegations demonstrate the need for change inside a palace that hasn’t kept pace with the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, others have criticized Harry and Meghan for dropping their bombshell while Harry’s 99-year-old grandfather, Prince Philip, remains hospitalized in London after a heart procedure.
During the two-hour interview, Meghan described feeling so isolated and miserable inside the royal family that she had suicidal thoughts, yet when she asked for mental health help from the palace’s human resources staff she was told she was not a paid employee. She also said a member of the royal family had expressed “concerns” to Harry about the colour of her unborn child’s skin.
Winfrey later said Harry told her off-camera that the family member wasn’t Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Philip, sparking a flurry of speculation about who it could be.
Harry also revealed the stresses the couple endured had ruptured relations with his father, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and his brother, Prince William, illuminating the depth of the family divisions that led the couple to step away from royal duties and move to California last year.
Prince Charles didn’t comment on the interview Tuesday during a visit to a vaccine clinic in London.
Harry’s father visited a church to see a temporary vaccine clinic in action and met with health care workers, church staff and people due to receive their vaccine jab. The visit was his first public appearance since the interview aired in the U.S. on Sunday night.
Maziya Marzook, a patient at the event, said “private matters didn’t come up at all” during Charles’ visit.
“He didn’t bring up anything,?” Marzook said. “He was more interested in how the vaccine was and how we feel.”
You can read the full statement below:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada has been warned of manufacturing problems plaguing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The viral vector vaccine developed by J&J’s subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, was authorized by Health Canada as safe and effective last week.
Canada pre-ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine, which is the first and only one in Canada’s vaccine plan that needs only one dose.
But Trudeau says Canada still doesn’t have a date for when it should receive the first deliveries.
“We have heard in many conversations with Johnson & Johnson that there are challenges around production of the Janssen vaccine, but we will continue to engage with them and we look forward to receiving doses as soon as possible,” he said Tuesday at a news conference in Ottawa. “And as soon as we get confirmation of doses being sent to Canada, we will let everyone know.”
Canada’s vaccine rollout has stepped up this month, after deliveries slowed to a trickle in February. Nearly a million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines were delivered last week and 910,000 doses of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines are arriving this week.
It took Canada 67 days to vaccinate the first one million people. It should take less than one-third that time to vaccinate the second million.
As of Tuesday, more than 1.9 million Canadians had received at least one dose.
Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Canada isn’t quite ready to follow the U.S. Centers for Disease Control with guidance for how vaccinated people can relax their public health measures.
The CDC said Monday that two weeks after getting their second doses, Americans can now visit indoors, without masks, with other fully vaccinated people, or those who are not vaccinated but are at low risk of serious illness.
Tam said there are still too many unknowns, including the effect of COVID-19 variants, and how vaccines will affect the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The United States is far ahead of Canada, having now vaccinated more than one in four people. Canada has vaccinated about one in 20.
Tam said there are “initial positive signs” that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are preventing transmission, as well as reducing the severity of illness, but it is still early.
The emergence of variants that aren’t all responding as well to vaccines is also of concern, she said.
Tam said Ontario now believes almost one-third of its new cases are one of those variants, with the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom the most common. That variant also appears to be the most receptive to the current vaccines.
Manitoba said Tuesday it had confirmed five new cases of B.1.1.7 and eight of another variant called B.1.351, but also said there did not appear to be any community transmission.
Saskatchewan said it had 35 new cases of variants among cases testing positive between Jan. 26 and Feb. 27, almost all of them B.1.1.7.
Alberta, meanwhile, said it had 28 new variant cases, for a total of 687.
B.C. had another 182 variant cases for a total of 576, most of them linked to the strain first found in the United Kingdom.
Tam said the next couple of weeks will be critical as many provinces have just begun easing the tightest lockdowns this week.
“We will know pretty soon, I think, as to whether we are able to keep the variants at manageable proportions while vaccines are escalated,” Tam said. “Which is why now is not the time to sort of make too many shifts in the public health measures at this time. But we will be able to do so based on what actually happens next.”
Ontario moved COVID-19 hot zones of Toronto and Peel out of total lockdown Monday, allowing retail stores to admit customers for the first time in 100 days, but is keeping restaurants closed to in-person dining. Quebec adjusted restrictions in five regions, including Quebec City, allowing gyms and restaurants to reopen in limited capacity for the first time since before Christmas.
Saskatchewan said Tuesday it was immediately ending its total ban on household gatherings, allowing people to have up to 10 people over from two or three different households. Next week it will increase capacity limits on houses of worship.
The number of new cases in Canada has plateaued at about 2,900 cases per day for about three weeks, but since Feb. 23, the average number of deaths per day has fallen from 54 to 37.
Newfoundland and Labrador also seems to be recovering from a major outbreak that swept through St. John’s last month. Public health officials reported one new case Tuesday and said active infections are down to 80, from 203 a week ago.
Canada’s vaccine contracts set out expected deliveries by first quarter and all 10 million of Canada’s J&J doses are to come between April and September. But it’s not yet known how many are to come in the spring and how many in the summer.
Johnson & Johnson production problems are affecting Europe and the U.S. as well. Several European countries, where the vaccine isn’t yet authorized, said they don’t expect as many doses of it next month as originally planned.
U.S. President Joe Biden said last week when he took office he was informed Johnson & Johnson was behind on production and efforts began to find more production space. Sanofi was first contracted to help produce the vaccine in Europe and last week Biden announced Merck would help produce it in the United States.
But it will be many months before they have production lines up and running.
A constitutional rights advocacy group is mounting a legal challenge to the federal government’s quarantine hotel policy, arguing it infringes on Canadians’ fundamental rights.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation has filed an application with Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice along with five individuals, seeking an end to the policy. The application names the Attorney General of Canada as the defendant.
A government order that went into effect on Feb. 14 mandates that anyone entering Canada from abroad must stay in a federally approved hotel for the first three nights of a 14-day quarantine.
“The biggest issue is that we have a fundamental right to enter Canada and this is a limit on that right and it’s not a justified limit,” said Christine Van Geyn, litigation director for the CCF. “There are so many alternatives that would be less infringing on rights.”
Travellers are expected to pay for their government-approved accommodations, which can cost hundreds of dollars per night. They may leave the hotels once a COVID-19 test taken at their point of entry comes back negative.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation argues in its legal application that hotel quarantine requirements are “overbroad, arbitrary and grossly disproportionate.”
The applicants are seeking an injunction to suspend the order, but are also asking to have the law struck down for infringing upon the constitutional rights of liberty, freedom from unreasonable detention, and the right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment.
The CCF is also seeking damages of $10,000. Van Geyn said the request for nominal damages is to cover off the costs of the five individual applicants for their hotel stays at approximately $2,000 per person.
“The focus is not on the money, the focus is on the ability for them to exercise their fundamental rights,” she said.
The CCF argues that the hotel policy detains people without COVID-19 symptoms who would be able to safely quarantine outside of government-approved accommodation at minimal or no expense.
A spokesperson for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada said that they were aware of the legal action and that the federal government intended to respond to the application.
When the order came into effect Van Geyn and the CCF asked for people impacted by the quarantine hotel policy to reach out to them. She said that the group received approximately 5,000 letters of support or from people directly effected by the policy.
Van Geyn said that the five individuals participating in the legal challenge were selected because they all had to travel out of Canada for compassionate reasons, in three cases attending to their parents in the final days of their lives.
She noted that Canada has an exemption to its quarantine policy for people entering the country for compassionate purposes, but not for residents who had to leave Canada for similar reasons.
“If you live in Florida and your mother breaks her hip and you need to come to Canada to help her … you can apply for an exemption and be granted one,” said Van Geyn. “But if the situation is reversed, if you live in Canada and your mother lives in Florida, you would still want to go and help her prepare for surgery and recover, but you are not eligible for an exemption when you return.
“It’s strange to me that the government is concerned about these compassionate travellers but only when you’re travelling in one direction.”
Julia Grieve the Accidental Environmentalist
Instagram: @prelovedjules
Recipe:
Future Nostalgia—
A trash twist on the classic Tom Collins, this cocktail calls for a syrup made from citrus scraps!
The Tom Collins recipe was first printed in the 1876 bartender book, it’s a nostalgic cocktail, fresh, fruity and I gave it a sustainable twist because the future is green.
CHOPPING BOARD CORDIAL –
(Example Recipe)
1kg Mixed fresh off cuts
1L Water
240g Granulated sugar
24g Citric acid powder
12g Malic acid powder
- Weigh your off cuts and add the same amount of water
- Cover and leave to soak over night at room temperature
- Strain out and weigh infused liquid
- (Assuming new weight is 1.2kg) add all powders and stir till dissolved
- Bottle and store cold
Future Nostalgia-
- 1 ½ cups ice
- 2 oz gin
- ¾ oz lemon juice
- ½ oz chopping board citrus cordial
- 1 cup ice
- 2 oz club soda
- Lemon wedge for garnish
Fill a glass with ½ cup ice and set aside in the freezer to chill. Combine the gin, lemon juice and cordial in a cocktail shaker with 1 cup of ice, cover and shake until chilled.
Strain into the chilled glass, top with club soda and garnish with a lemon slice and enjoy!
