A bill to expand access to medical assistance in dying has emerged intact from a Senate committee but it’s not likely to remain unscathed for long.
The Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee accepted the bill Wednesday in a matter of minutes, without amendment.
But it did so only because members agreed in advance to hold off proposing amendments until the legislation returns next week to the Senate for final debate.
And several senators made it clear they fully intend to propose amendments when the time comes.
“We can debate this at length at third reading, we can do amendments at third reading,” said Sen. Don Plett, leader of the Conservative Senate caucus.
“As I don’t think it is any secret, I am inherently opposed to the entire piece of legislation … There are a few of us. I’m not alone.”
Indeed, it has become clear during the committee’s extensive hearings on the bill that many senators have profound objections – some, like Plett, because they think it goes too far and others because they think it doesn’t go far enough.
Committee members essentially agreed to shelve their concerns for now, in the interests of getting the bill back to the Senate as a whole quickly.
The government wants the legislation passed by Feb. 26 – the thrice-extended, court-imposed deadline for complying with a 2019 Quebec Superior Court ruling which struck down a provision that allows assisted dying only for those who are nearing the natural end of their lives.
That deadline could still be in jeopardy if, as seems likely, the Senate makes substantial amendments to the bill. The amended version would have to go back to the House of Commons to decide whether to accept or reject the amendments before shipping it back to the Senate, where senators would have to decide whether to approve the bill even if some or all of their amendments were rejected.
In theory, the bill could bounce repeatedly back and forth between chambers.
The bill would scrap the near-death proviso but retain the concept to create two eligibility tracks for an assisted death: a relaxed set of rules for people who are at the end of life and more stringent rules for those who are not.
It would also explicitly prohibit the procedure for people suffering solely from mental illnesses.
Some senators and constitutional experts believe that exclusion contravenes the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees equal treatment under the law, regardless of physical or mental disability.
Other senators and disability rights advocates argue the bill is unconstitutional because it sends the message that the lives of people with disabilities are not of equal value.
One amendment that will almost certainly be proposed would call on the government to refer the bill to the Supreme Court of Canada for authoritative advice on its constitutionality.
Among other likely amendments:
– A sunset clause on the mental illness exclusion, giving the government a year to come up with guidelines for allowing assisted dying for people suffering solely from mental disorders.
– A clause specifying that discussion of medical assistance in dying must be triggered by the patient, not by medical practitioners.
– A clause to strengthen the conscience rights of medical practitioners, likely specifying that those who have moral or religious objections to assisted dying do not have to refer a patient to someone who will provide the procedure.
– Various amendments to restore some of the eligibility criteria relaxed in Bill C-7 for people who are near death.
– Various amendments to remove some of the more stringent eligibility conditions imposed on people who are not near death.
All Air Canada Rouge flights will be paused beginning Monday.
The airline is citing new restrictions brought in by the Canadian government that effectively ban flights to sunny destinations like the Caribbean and Mexico in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roughly 80 employees have been handed temporary layoffs.
This isn’t the first interruption for Rouge service. Flights were suspended for most of last year but restarted in November ahead of the winter travel season.
Air Canada says Rouge remains a part of its long-term business plan.
Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, and Air Transat would suspend service to Caribbean destinations and Mexico between January 31, and April 30.
“With the challenges we currently face with COVID-19, both here at home and abroad, we all agree that now is just not the time to be flying,” Trudeau said last Friday.
“By putting in place these tough measures now, we can look forward to a better time when we can all plan those vacations.”
With files from the Canadian Press
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/02/03/ontario-schools-reopening-plan-covid19/
Students in COVID-19 hotspots – Toronto, Peel and York regions – will return to in-class learning on Tuesday, February 16, Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced on Wednesday.
The following public health units outside of the Greater Toronto Area will head back to class on February 8:
- Brant County Health Unit
- Chatham-Kent Public Health
- Durham Region Health Department
- Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit
- Halton Region Public Health
- City of Hamilton Public Health Services
- Huron Perth Public Health
- Lambton Public Health
- Niagara Region Public Health
- Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit
- Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services
- Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health
- Windsor-Essex County Health Unit
“Following the best medical advice, with the clear support of both Ontario’s and the local Medical Officers of Health, we are reopening schools across the province knowing that we have taken additional steps and made additional investments to better protect our students and staff,” said Lecce.
“Nothing is more important than returning kids to school safely because it is crucial for their development, mental health, and future success.”
http://https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1715060242006682
Lecce said the government wouldn’t hesitate to alter plans if COVID-19 cases begin surging again, adding individual public health units also have the authority to close schools based on local circumstances.
“I want to be clear, if things change … we will not hesitate to act … that’s why we’re gong to monitor the trends to ensure we deliver on our number one priority for our government – keeping schools safe.”
“As kids return to schools, schools will be even safer,” Lecce added, noting the implementation of enhanced screening and testing, as well as mandatory masks for student in Grade One and up.
All students in Ontario began January with online learning as part of a provincial lockdown.
Toronto’s mayor and its officials say they fully support the Ford government’s careful review and subsequent decision to allow kids back for in-person learning.
John Tory and Toronto’s top doctor, Dr. Eileen de Villa, both acknowledged that while any decision made will come with both positive and negative reaction, they say students are better suited inside classrooms.
“I am in full support of the approach taken by premier [Doug] Ford and minister [Stephen] Lecce, including the approach taken with respect to City of Toronto schools, in particular. In-class learning is very important. Kids need the social development they get from going to school while being surrounded by teachers and their peers. We all agree as well that this reopening of schools must happen safely.”
Dr. de Villa, meanwhile, says that on the subject of reopening these schools, she is “of the belief, there is no perfect answer or solution during a pandemic.”
“When schools were closed for months in the first part of the pandemic, it was in large part for the same reason almost everything else was closed, too. We knew very little about COVID-19 – how it is spread, who is vulnerable to it, how it could be treated, and even if vaccines were possible. Over the past year, the body of knowledge has expanded.”
Ontario’s largest teachers’ union said Wednesday that adequate safety measures must be in place to prevent future school closures.
The president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario said the government must take “urgent action” to fund additional measures and provide time for school boards to implement them.
“The Ford government has not invested any new provincial money since August,” Sam Hammond said. “They must stop taking credit for federal funding and invest now to avoid contributing to a third wave.”
NDP education critic Marit Stiles said while the Opposition want to sees schools reopen, the government has not demonstrated how it will make them safe.
The province needs to cap class sizes at 15 students, create a comprehensive in-school testing regime, and improve ventilation, she said.
“Don’t just open schools – make them safe to open,” Stiles said.
Romana Siddiqui, a mother of three living in Mississauga, Ont., said it’s some comfort for her that Peel Region is resuming classes a week later than others, allowing more time for cases to decline further.
She said, however, that she’d still like to see more safety measures, such as smaller class sizes.
“We know for our kids, being in a brick-and-mortar school in person, that’s the best in terms of the quality of their education,” Siddiqui said, adding that it’s a difficult call to weigh the benefits of in-person learning with the risks of virus transmission in schools.
“There’s always a push-and-pull. There’s no easy answers.”
Shameela Shakeel, who has three school-aged children, said she wants assurance that the government’s “enhanced safety measures” will be in place by the time classes resume in York Region in two weeks.
“They have to really start to seriously mean it when they say that safety comes first for our kids and educators,” the Newmarket, Ont., parent said.
The decision on schools came as Ontario reported 1,172 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, although officials noted that updates to the provincial case-management system were causing data fluctuations.
Ontario will announce Wednesday whether schools in regions hardest hit by COVID-19 can reopen next week for in-person learning.
The decision will follow a recommendation from the province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce says parents need to know if schools will reopen for in-person learning so they have time to prepare.
The province has previously said that schools in five COVID-19 hot spots as well as several other regions would reopen for in-person learning by Feb. 10.
All students in Ontario began January with online learning as part of a provincial lockdown.
The province has since taken a staggered approach to reopening physical classrooms, starting first with Northern Ontario and rural schools where case rates are lower.
Donald Trump endangered the lives of all members of Congress when he aimed a mob of supporters “like a loaded cannon” at the U.S. Capitol, House Democrats said Tuesday in making their most detailed case yet for why the former president should be convicted and permanently barred from office. Trump denied the allegations through his lawyers and called the trial unconstitutional.
The dueling filings offer the first public glimpse of the arguments that will be presented to the Senate beginning next week. The impeachment trial represents a remarkable reckoning with the violence in the Capitol last month, which the senators witnessed firsthand, and with Trump’s presidency overall. Held in the very chamber where the insurrectionists stood on Jan. 6, it will pit Democratic demands for a final measure of accountability against the desire of many Republicans to turn the page and move on.
The impeachment trial, Trump’s second, begins in earnest on Feb. 9.
The Democratic legal brief forcefully linked Trump’s baseless efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election to the deadly riot at the Capitol, saying he bears “unmistakable” blame for actions that threatened the underpinnings of American democracy. It argued that he must be found guilty on a charge of inciting the siege. And it used evocative language to conjure the day’s chaos, when “terrified members were trapped in the chamber” and called loved ones “for fear they would not survive.”
“His conduct endangered the life of every single member of Congress, jeopardized the peaceful transition of power and line of succession, and compromised our national security,” the Democratic managers of the impeachment case wrote. “This is precisely the sort of constitutionaloffence that warrants disqualification from federal office.”
The Democrats’ filing made clear their plan to associate Trump’s words with the resulting violence, tracing his efforts to subvert democracy to when he first said last summer that he would not accept the election results and then through the November contest and his many failed attempts to challenge the results in court. When those efforts failed, the Democrats wrote, “he turned to improper and abusive means of staying in power,” specifically by launching a pressure campaign aimed at state election officials, the Justice Department and Congress.
“The only honourable path at that point was for President Trump to accept the results and concede his electoral defeat. Instead, he summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue,” the Democrats wrote in an 80-page document.
The Democrats cited his unsuccessful efforts to sway Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and former Attorney General William Barr. Trump then became “fixated” on Jan. 6, the managers wrote. They note that many of his supporters, including the Proud Boys _ who Trump told to “stand back and stand by” at a September debate _ were already primed for violence.
“Given all that, the crowd which assembled on January 6 unsurprisingly included many who were armed, angry, and dangerous_and poised on a hair trigger for President Trump to confirm that they indeed had to “fight” to save America from an imagined conspiracy,” the Democrats wrote.
The House brief is more than 5 times as long as the 14-page Trump filing and heavy on footnotes and citations, aiming to construct what Democrats hope will be a detailed roadmap for conviction. Trump’s legal team, by contrast, was more sparing in a filing that avoided dwelling on the drama and violence of the day.
Trump’s lawyers, David Schoen and Bruce Castor, denied that he had incited the riot by disputing the election results or by exhorting his followers to “fight like hell.” They said he was permitted by the First Amendment to challenge his loss to Democrat Joe Biden as “suspect” and that, in any event, the trial itself was unconstitutional now that Trump has left the White House.
Trump’s lawyers disputed the Democrats’ characterization of Trump’s remarks and his role in the riot, denying that he had ever endangered national security. When he told his followers to fight like hell, they said, he was talking about “election security in general.”
Trump, they said, was not attempting to interfere with the counting of electoral votes, only encouraging members of Congress to engage in the customary process of challenging vote submissions “under a process written into Congressional rules,” as had been done in years past.
“The actions by the House make clear that in their opinion the 45th President does not enjoy the protections of liberty upon which this great Nation was founded, where free speech, and indeed, free political speech form the backbone of all American liberties,” the defence lawyers wrote.
Trump’s legal team also laid out a challenge to the constitutionality of the trial now that Trump has left office. Though that claim may not be resolved any time soon in the courts, it may nonetheless resonate politically.
Republicans have signalled that acquittal is likely, with many saying they think Congress should move on and questioning the constitutionality of an impeachment trial _ Trump’s second _ now that he has left office. In a test vote in the Senate last week, 45 Republicans, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, voted in favour of an effort to dismiss the trial over those constitutional concerns.
Still, the Constitution specifies that disqualification from office can be a punishment for an impeachment conviction, and Democrats made clear that they see that as a worthwhile objective in this case.
“This is not a case where elections alone are a sufficient safeguard against future abuse; it is the electoral process itself that President Trump attacked and that must be protected from him and anyone else who would seek to mimic his behaviour,” the Democrats wrote.
Though no president has been tried after departing the White House, Democrats say there is precedent, pointing to an 1876 impeachment of a secretary of war who resigned his office in a last-ditch attempt to avoid an impeachment trial. The Senate held it anyway.
The Democrats wrote that the framers of the Constitution would not have wanted to leave the country defenceless against “a president’s treachery in his final days, allowing him to misuse power, violate his Oath, and incite insurrection against Congress and our electoral institutions” simply because he is leaving office. Setting that precedent now would “horrify the Framers,” the brief said.
“There is no `January Exception’ to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution,” the Democrats wrote. “A president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last.”
Canada’s top defence officials say they are troubled by allegations that former defence chief Jonathan Vance engaged in inappropriate behaviour with female subordinates.
Global News reported on Tuesday that Vance allegedly had an ongoing relationship with a woman he significantly outranked.
Vance is also alleged to have made a sexual comment to a second, much younger soldier in 2012, before he was appointed chief of the defence staff.
Vance could not be reached for comment on Tuesday and the allegations against him could not be independently verified.
In a joint statement, Vance’s successor Admiral Art McDonald and Defence Department deputy minister Jody Thomas say they take all such allegations seriously, without suggesting they had substantiated these.
They say misconduct by anyone at any rank in the Canadian Forces harms the military’s ability to operate and protect the country.
“We will be communicating more in the coming days and have no further comment at this time,” their statement said.
Vance acknowledged having been in a relationship with the first woman nearly 20 years ago, according to Global, but that it had evolved over the years and was not sexual.
The former defence chief also said he had no recollection of making a sexual comment to the other junior member, adding if he did make the comment it would have been intended as a joke and that he was prepared to apologize.
The allegations against Vance come less than a month after he turned over command of the Canadian Armed Forces to McDonald.
Vance took over as defence chief in July 2015, at which point the Canadian Armed Forces was struggling with allegations of having turned a blind eye toward sexual misconduct in the ranks.
Vance’s first order as Canada’s top military commander was to launch an all-out effort against such inappropriate behaviour, which he continued to push during his five-plus years at the helm.
Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon and turned into an online shopping behemoth, is stepping down as the company’s CEO, a role he’s had for nearly 30 years.
He’ll be replaced in the fall by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon’s cloud-computing business. Bezos, 57, will then become the company’s executive chair.
In a blog post to employees, Bezos said he plans to focus on new products and early initiatives being developed at Amazon. And he said he’ll have more time for side projects: his space exploration company Blue Origin; the newspaper he owns, The Washington Post; and his charities.
Launched in 1995, Amazon was a pioneer of fast and free shipping that won over millions of shoppers who used the site to buy diapers, TVs and just about anything. Under Bezos, Amazon also launched the first e-reader that gained mass acceptance, and its Echo listening device made voice assistants a more common sight in many living rooms.
As a child, Bezos was intrigued by computers and interested in building things, such as alarms he rigged in his parents’ home. He got a degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University, and then worked at several Wall Street companies.
He quit his job at D.E. Shaw to start an online retail business _ though at first he wasn’t sure what to sell. Bezos quickly determined that an online bookstore would resonate with consumers. He and his wife, MacKenzie, whom he met at D.E. Shaw and married in 1993, set out on a road trip to Seattle _ a city chosen for its abundance of tech talent and proximity to a large book distributor in Roseburg, Oregon.
While MacKenzie drove, Bezos wrote up the business plan for what would become Amazon.com. Bezos convinced his parents and some friends to invest in the idea, and Amazon began operating out of the Bezos’ Seattle garage on July 16, 1995.
A man is facing an explosives-related charge following a confrontation with police in a mall parking lot early Monday morning, Hamilton police say.
Police said they were called at around 5 a.m. for a report of a person in crisis in the Lime Ridge Mall parking lot.
When officers arrived, police allege they found a man alone in a car. The area was sealed off so officers could speak to the man, police said.
“Moments before 8 a.m., without warning the male attempted to leave the parking lot striking police vehicles and barricades,” a police news release said. “His vehicle was contained by police as it entered Upper Wentworth Street.”
The man was taken into custody on Upper Wentworth Street without incident and was sent to the hospital for treatment, police said. The man’s condition has not been released.
No police officers were injured during the incident, police said.
After the man was taken out of the car, police said officers searching the vehicle found “a suspicious device” inside.
“The Emergency Response Unit attended the scene, investigated the device and confirmed it was a device built with the intent to explode and rendered it inoperable,” police said.
Later in the afternoon, police said investigators used a search warrant to enter a residence in the area of Concession Street and Upper Sherman Avenue where they say they found additional evidence related to the incident outside the mall.
A 44-year-old Hamilton man has been charged with being in possession of an explosive device, police said. He will appear in court on Tuesday.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/02/01/ontario-confirms-first-case-of-south-african-covid-19-variant/
Ontario has reported its first case of a COVID-19 variant that emerged in South Africa, with the province’s top doctor saying more such infections are expected to be found in the future.
Dr. David Williams said Monday that the South African variant was found in Peel Region in a person who had neither travelled nor had any known contact with anyone who travelled.
“This is our first South African one. I would doubt if it’s going to be our last,” he said.
Williams said data from South Africa shows the variant has a higher viral load, meaning it may be more infectious.
A small number of cases have already been confirmed in other Canadian provinces, including Alberta and British Columbia.
The South African variant one of three “variants of concern” that Public Health Ontario is ramping up screening for in the province.
Officials have already confirmed dozens of cases of the U.K. variant in the province since it was first detected in December.
Health and science experts advising the province have said the spread of that variant poses a significant threat to Ontario’s control of the pandemic.
Earlier on Monday, York Region, north of Toronto, confirmed it had recorded 39 total cases of the U.K. variant of COVID-19.
While the majority are now resolved, the municipality said there are 24 households associated with the cases, and 10 were spread through “local transmission.”
“We are very concerned about the U.K. variant in circulation within York Region; it is important to curb this COVID-19 variant spread as quickly as we can,” communications director Patrick Casey said in a statement.
Toronto Public Health reported Monday that it had linked two U.K. variant cases to an outbreak at a meat processing facility that has infected 78 people.
“At this time, there is no indication that any cases identified in the outbreak had recently travelled or had contact with a person who travelled recently,” the health unit said in a statement.
It said Belmont Meats voluntarily closed on Jan. 28 amid the public health investigation.
As of Sunday, Public Health Ontario had confirmed 69 total cases of the U.K. variant in the province, though regional officials have said they believe the number is likely much higher.
The new variant cases reported Monday case as Ontario began making all international travellers flying into Toronto take a COVID-19 tests on arrival.
The program is similar to a federal plan set to be implemented in the near future. Premier Doug Ford said Ontario would conduct its own traveller testing until Ottawa’s program kicked in.
The testing order that took effect at the Toronto airport Monday will eventually apply to the province’s land border crossings to the United States.
Evan Rachkovsky, a spokesman for the Canadian Snowbird Association that represents about 110,000 people, said his group supports mandatory COVID-19 tests but is concerned about the fine print in the federal government’s stricter rules.
“We are absolutely supportive of the provinces and the federal government implementing testing at land borders and at airports,” Rachkovsky said in a phone interview.
He said many of the more than 30,000 group members currently abroad are anxious for more details of the federal plan — in particular, the group is opposed to the federal program’s rule that travellers must pay for a stay at an approved hotel while waiting on COVID-19 test results.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that the on-arrival testing and hotel stay could cost each traveller more than $2,000.
NDP Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath said point-of-entry testing is just part of the picture and accused Ford of “diverting people’s attention to the airport” rather than taking concrete steps to control the pandemic inside Ontario.
“I think anything that prevents COVID-19 from entering Ontario needs to be considered but let’s face it, Doug Ford needs to pay attention to stopping the spread within Ontario,” Horwath said.
Ontario reported 1,969 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and 36 more deaths linked to the virus.
A spokeswoman for Ontario’s Ministry of Health said that as Toronto migrates to the provincial data system, additional records were reported for the local public health unit, resulting in an overestimate of Monday’s daily counts.
“Saved by the Bell” star Dustin Diamond died Monday after a three-week fight with cancer, according to his representative. He was 44.
“Dustin did not suffer. He did not have to lie submerged in pain. For that, we are grateful,” the actor’s spokesman, Roger Paul, said in a statement.
Diamond, best known for playing the quirky, nerdy Screech on the hit ’90s sitcom, was hospitalized last month in Florida and his team disclosed later that he had cancer. Diamond had carcinoma.
Former co-star Mario Lopez took to Twitter to say farewell: “Dustin, you will be missed, my man. The fragility of this life is something never to be taken for granted.” Another co-star, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, called Diamond “a true comedic genius,” adding “I will miss those raw, brilliant sparks that only he was able to produce.”
“Saved by the Bell” aired from 1989 to 1993, and its related shows included “Saved by the Bell: The College Years,”
“Good Morning, Miss Bliss” and “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” which Diamond starred in. A sequel was launched on Peacock last fall featuring many from the original cast, including Gosselaar, Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley and Tiffani Thiessen. Diamond was not included.
“God speed, Dustin,” Thiessen wrote on Instagram. Josh Gad on Twitter said Diamond was “a defining part of our collective pop cultural touchstones.”
He starred in a handful of reality television series including the 5th season of “Celebrity Fit Club,” “The Weakest Link” and “Celebrity Boxing 2.” In December 2013, Diamond appeared on an episode of OWN’s “Where Are They Now?” and became a house member in the 12th season of “Celebrity Big Brother.”
Diamond was sued several times for delinquent taxes and in foreclosure proceedings for missing mortgage payments. He has appeared on reality TV shows, made a sex tape and produced a tell-all documentary on Lifetime TV called “The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story.” In 2015, he was sentenced to serve four months in jail for his part in a Wisconsin barroom stabbing.
“Dustin was a humorous and high-spirited individual whose greatest passion was to make others laugh. He was able to sense and feel other peoples’ emotions to such a length that he was able to feel them too — a strength and a flaw, all in one,” wrote Paul.
