Siegfried Fischbacher, the surviving member of the magic duo Siegfried & Roy who entertained millions with illusions using rare animals, has died in Las Vegas, his longtime publicist tells The Associated Press. He was 81.
Fischbacher died Wednesday at his home from pancreatic cancer, Dave Kirvin of Kirvin Doak Communications said Thursday. The news was first reported by German news agency dpa.
Fischbacher’s long-time show business partner, Roy Horn, died last year of complications from COVID-19 at a Las Vegas hospital. He was 75.
The duo astonished millions with their extraordinary magic tricks until Horn was critically injured in 2003 by one of the act’s famed white tigers.
In a statement announcing Horn’s death in May, Fischbacher said, “From the moment we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world. There could be no Siegfried without Roy, and no Roy without Siegfried.”
He later told Germany’s weekly Bild am Sonntag newspaper his best friend would always stay by his side.
“For dinner, I will continue to have the table set for him, too. Like it always was the case. I’m not alone,” dpa quoted Fischbacher as telling the newspaper.
For years, Siegfried & Roy was an institution in Las Vegas, where Fischbacher and Horn’s magic and artistry consistently attracted sellout crowds. The pair performed six shows a week, 44 weeks per year.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak called Fischbacher “a `Master of the Impossible’ and an exemplary Nevadan whose contributions — alongside the late great Roy Horn — helped shine a bright spotlight on Las Vegas’s entertainment industry to the world.”
Horn and Fischbacher, both natives of Germany, first teamed up in 1957 and made their Las Vegas debut a decade later. Siegfried & Roy began performing at the Mirage in 1990.
The pair gained international recognition for helping to save rare white tigers and white lions from extinction. Their $10 million compound was home to dozens of rare animals over the years. The white lions and white tigers were the result of a preservation program that began in the 1980s.
The Siegfried & Roy show incorporated animal antics and magic tricks, featuring 20 white tigers and lions, the number varying depending on the night. The show also had other exotic animals, including an elephant.
“Anyone who came to town, their request was always, `I must see Siegfried and Roy!’” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman and her husband and mayoral predecessor, Oscar Goodman, said in a statement. “They put Las Vegas on the map not only as spectacular illusionists but also as breeders, trainers and caretakers” of their performance animals.
“A trip to the Mirage Hotel and the Secret Garden was a treat one never could forget,” the Goodmans added.
Born on June 13, 1939 in Rosenheim in Bavaria, Fischbacher learned his first magic tricks as a young boy, dpa reported.
Horn and Fischbacher met on a cruise ship in 1957. Fischbacher performed the magic tricks, while Horn became his assistant, eventually suggesting using the cheetah in the act.
They honed their animal-magic show in small clubs in Germany and Switzerland in the mid-1960s. Their break came in a Monte Carlo casino when an agent in the audience invited them to Las Vegas. The pair made their debut at the Tropicana hotel-casino in the late 1960s.
The illusionists became popular in the 1970s, receiving their first star billing in 1978 as headliners of the Stardust’s “Lido de Paris.” Their show “Beyond Belief” opened in 1981 at the Frontier and played to thousands over seven years.
When they signed a lifetime contract with the Mirage in 2001, it was estimated they had performed 5,000 shows at the casino for 10 million fans since 1990 and had grossed more than $1 billion.
“Throughout the history of Las Vegas, no artists have meant more to the development of Las Vegas’ global reputation as the entertainment capital of the world than Siegfried and Roy,” Terry Lanni, chairman of MGM Mirage, the casino’s parent company, said after the 2003 attack that injured Horn.
Funeral services will be private with plans for a public memorial in the future.
Toronto Public Health is launching a new study that will focus on people who have tested negative for COVID-19.
Calling it a “new approach for public health units in Canada”, the agency says it wants to compare the activities of people who test positive to those who tested negative in similar settings such as work environments, living arrangements and public spaces.
“These comparison data will help us understand how different behaviours, settings and activities can increase a person’s risks for becoming infected with COVID-19,” said Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s Medical Officer of Health.
“The information will then be used to identify which activities and settings place the individuals who contracted COVID-19 at increased risk of infection, where they may have been exposed to the virus and inform actions.”
People who have tested negative will receive a text message (1-833-929-2338) and a link to a survey, which will collect data about their activities in the days before getting a COVID-19 test. These are similar questions asked of people who eventually test positive as part of contact tracing efforts.
Officials say the information collected will help inform decisions about how best to protect people and stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“When it comes to fighting COVID-19, knowledge is power,” said Councillor Joe Cressy, the chair of the Board of Health. “Understanding why some people who may have been exposed to the virus but do not contract COVID-19 is as important as understanding why others do become ill.”
Participants who get the text are asked to complete the survey no later than three days after receiving it.
The City says all responses will be kept confidential and only summary level data will be reported.
Canada’s largest province laid out its plan Wednesday to administer the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in all nursing and high-risk retirement homes by the middle of next month as it works to boost its immunization capacity.
The Ontario government said it is stepping up immunizations in long-term care homes now that it has protocols in place to safely transport the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has strict storage requirements.
The plan builds on an earlier promise to give the COVID-19 vaccine to long-term care facilities in hot spots by Jan. 21.
“We’re moving at a rapid speed right now,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in an afternoon news conference. “We’re building the capacity. We’re emptying our freezers.”
Ford also said the federal government had once again offered the support of the military, which was sent to help the hard-hit long-term care sector during the first wave of the pandemic. His office later clarified, however, that the prime minister made a broad offer of support.
The premier’s office added that the province has requested and is currently receiving help in the form of military field hospitals, military logistics advisors to bolster the vaccine rollout, and Red Cross teams in a selection of long-term care facilities.
Long-term care has borne the brunt of the pandemic, accounting for more than 3,000 of the province’s more than 5,000 deaths from COVID-19.
The province reported 74 more deaths from the virus on Wednesday, and 2,961 new infections. It also said more than 11,000 vaccines have been administered since its last daily report.
An order requiring Ontario residents to stay home except for essential activities was set to take effect at midnight, one of several measures the government announced Tuesday as new projections showed its health-care system is on the brink of being overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, the Ontario Medical Association, which represents more than 43,000 physicians, laid out several recommendations it said would help improve the health of long-term care residents and workers now.
In a virtual panel Wednesday, the association called on the province to speed up its vaccination efforts in the homes.
“I don’t think any of us can say we are moving quickly enough,” said Dr. Hugh Boyd, a medical director of two long-term care homes in Hamilton and Guelph, Ont.
The association also said there is far too much paperwork and bureaucracy involved when an outside doctor or nurse tries to go into the homes, and called on the province to reduce red tape.
In Quebec, where officials have implemented a curfew in an effort to reduce the strain on health care, 2,071 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded Wednesday. Thirty-five more deaths were also reported.
The province said it administered 7,855 doses of the vaccine yesterday, for a total of 107,365.
Saskatchewan reported 247 new infections Wednesday and two more deaths related to the virus. The province said 205 people are in hospital as a result of COVID-19, with 36 in intensive care.
An additional 155 COVID-19 cases and five deaths were reported in Manitoba, which has seen its daily number of new infections trend downwards.
Out east, Nova Scotia recorded eight new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 30 active cases at this time. New Brunswick reported 19 new cases and another death — the third at the Parkland Saint John Tucker Hall long-term care facility in Saint John.
Meanwhile, seven residents of a Montreal long-term care home who received a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine tested positive for the virus.
A notice sent Tuesday to patients at the Maimonides Geriatric Centre noted residents were infected in the first 28 days after they received the first of two vaccine doses.
The province has decided to delay doling out second doses in favour of administering a first dose to as many people as possible — a strategy acknowledged this week by the country’s panel of vaccine experts.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization said briefly delaying the second dose of a vaccine could allow more people to get a first dose sooner, though it stresses efforts should be made to follow the recommended schedules for administering the shots.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that Canada has secured enough of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to immunize every Canadian who wants it by fall, but most won’t arrive until spring and summer.
Air Canada says it will cut 1,700 jobs as it scales down operations in response to a new wave of lockdown restrictions.
The 25 per cent reduction in service for the first quarter of 2021 will also affect 200 employees at Air Canada’s Express carriers, the company said Wednesday morning.
“We regret the impact these difficult decisions will have on our employees who have worked very hard during the pandemic looking after our customers, as well as on the affected communities,” said Lucie Guillemette, Air Canada’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, in a statement.
Guillemette said increased travel restrictions by federal and provincial governments have had an immediate impact on the company’s bookings.
With the reduction, Air Canada’s capacity in the first quarter of 2021 will be about 20 per cent of its capacity during the first quarter of 2019, the company says.
Air Canada notified airports in Atlantic Canada this week that it would cut additional routes in the region, suspending all flights in Gander, N.L., Goose Bay, N.L., and Fredericton, N.B., until further notice as of Jan. 23.
Air Canada is contacting affected customers to offer them options such as refunds or alternative travel arrangements, the company said.
The cuts come just days after Air Canada’s latest round of service reductions in Atlantic Canada went into effect on Jan. 11.
Monette Pasher, the executive director of the Atlantic Canada Airports Association, said in a statement that the repercussions of the service cuts would be felt for years to come in communities in Atlantic Canada.
“We cannot just flip a switch to turn air service back on when we get to the other side of this pandemic,” Pasher said. “We are going to have a long hard road ahead of us to rebuild air access for our region.”
President Donald Trump has become the first American president to be impeached twice, facing a strong bipartisan rebuke from the House exactly one week after a violent mob of his supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol.
The House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump, with 10 Republicans joining with Democrats to charge him with incitement of insurrection.
The extraordinary second impeachment, just days before Trump is to leave office, comes after the president encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” against the election results in a speech near the White House.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will now send the article of impeachment to the Senate, though that timing is unclear. Actual removal seems unlikely before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will not bring the Senate back before Jan. 19.
Still, McConnell did not rule out voting to convict Trump. In a note to his fellow Republican senators just before the House was to begin voting, he said he is undecided.
“While the press has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate,” McConnell wrote.
In the House, the momentum for action has been unstoppable.
The impeachment proceedings came one week after a violent, pro-Trump mob breached the U.S. Capitol, sending lawmakers into hiding and revealing the fragility of the nation’s history of peaceful transfers of power. The riot has also forced a reckoning among some Republicans, who have stood by Trump throughout his presidency and largely allowed him to spread false attacks against the integrity of the 2020 election.
While Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 brought no Republican votes in the House, at least eight House Republicans announced that they would break with the party to join Democrats this time, saying Trump violated his oath to protect and defend U.S. democracy. Among them was Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House and the daughter of former Vice-President Dick Cheney.
As two Republican lawmakers _ Washington Reps. Dan Newhouse and Jaime Herrera Beutler _ announced on the floor they would vote to impeach, Trump issued a new statement urging “NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind.” But he has repeatedly declined to take any responsibility for last week’s riots.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said for the first time that Trump does bear responsibility, acknowledging on the House floor before the vote that Biden is the next president and that radical liberal groups were not responsible for the riots, as some conservatives have falsely claimed.
But McCarthy said he opposed impeachment, instead favouring a “fact finding commission” and censure.
As for threats of more trouble from intruders, security was exceptionally tight at the Capitol with shocking images of massed National Guard troops, secure perimeters around the complex and metal-detector screenings required for lawmakers entering the House chamber.
“We are debating this historic measure at a crime scene,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
Though McConnell is declining to hasten an impeachment trial, a Republican strategist told The Associated Press the GOP leader believes Trump committed impeachable offences and considers the Democrats’ impeachment drive an opportunity to reduce the divisive, chaotic president’s hold on the GOP.
McConnell called major Republican donors last weekend to gauge their thinking about Trump and was told that Trump had clearly crossed a line. McConnell told them he was through with Trump, said the strategist, who demanded anonymity to describe McConnell’s conversations.
The New York Times first reported McConnell’s views on impeachment on Tuesday.
The stunning collapse of Trump’s final days in office, along with warnings of more violence ahead, leaves the nation at an uneasy and unfamiliar juncture before Biden takes office.
Trump faces the single charge of “incitement of insurrection.”
The four-page impeachment resolution relies on Trump’s own incendiary rhetoric and the falsehoods he spread about Biden’s election victory, including at a White House rally on the day of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in making its case for “high crimes and misdemeanours” as demanded in the Constitution.
Trump took no responsibility for the riot, suggesting it was the drive to oust him rather than his actions around the bloody riot that was dividing the country.
“To continue on this path, I think it’s causing tremendous danger to our country, and it’s causing tremendous anger,” Trump said Tuesday, his first remarks to reporters since last week’s violence.
A Capitol police officer died from injuries suffered in the riot, and police shot and killed a woman during the siege. Three other people died in what authorities said were medical emergencies. Lawmakers scrambled for safety and hid as rioters took control of the Capitol, delaying by hours the tally of Electoral College votes that was the last step in finalizing Biden’s victory.
The Republican lawmakers who chose to vote yes, including Cheney, were unswayed by the president’s logic. Their support of impeachment cleaved the Republican leadership, and the party itself.
“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” said Cheney in a statement. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
Unlike a year ago, Trump faces impeachment as a weakened leader, having lost his own reelection as well as the Senate Republican majority.
The president was said to be livid with perceived disloyalty from McConnell and Cheney, as calls mounted for her ouster. He was also deeply frustrated that he could not hit back with his shuttered Twitter account, the fear of which has kept most Republicans in line for years, according to White House officials and Republicans close to the West Wing who weren’t authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.
The team around Trump has hollowed out, without any plan for combating the impeachment effort. Trump leaned on Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to push Republican senators, while chief of staff Mark Meadows called some of his former colleagues on the Hill.
Trump was expected to watch much of Wednesday’s proceedings on TV from the White House residence and his private dining area off the Oval Office.
The House tried first to push Vice-President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to intervene, passing a resolution Tuesday night calling on them to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump from office.
Pence made it clear he would not do so, saying in a letter to Pelosi, that it was “time to unite our country as we prepare to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden.”
It’s far from clear there will be the two-thirds vote in the evenly divided Senate needed to convict Trump, though at least two Republicans have called for him to “go away as soon as possible.”
The FBI warned ominously of potential armed protests by Trump loyalists ahead of Biden’s inauguration. Capitol Police urged lawmakers to be on alert. Charges of sedition are being considered for rioters.
Biden has said it’s important to ensure that the “folks who engaged in sedition and threatening the lives, defacing public property, caused great damage _ that they be held accountable.”
Fending off concerns that an impeachment trial would bog down his first days in office, the president-elect is encouraging senators to divide their time between taking taking up his priorities of confirming his nominees and approving COVID-19 relief while also conducting the trial.
The impeachment bill draws from Trump’s own false statements about his election defeat to Biden. Judges across the country, including some nominated by Trump, have repeatedly dismissed cases challenging the election results, and former Attorney General William Barr, a Trump ally, has said there was no sign of widespread fraud.
While some have questioned impeaching the president so close to the end of his term, there is precedent. In 1876, during the Ulysses Grant administration, War Secretary William Belknap was impeached by the House the day he resigned, and the Senate convened a trial months later. He was acquitted.
Trump was impeached in 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine but acquitted by the Senate in 2020.
The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) has reinstated a link to the LGBT Youthline on their website after facing backlash for its removal on Tuesday.
The link was removed because of what the board said was “inappropriate material” found on the site.
According to the LGBT Youthline, the TCDSB sent them an email stating that they found objectionable material on the site, linking an article written by former Liberal MP Joe Volpe, who referred to it as a “pornographic website.”
The group started out as a phone line more than two decades ago and now provides vital support to thousands of youth 29 and under, who are queer, trans, and two-spirit.
“When we’re told that it’s being pulled from a really large school board, it has an impact,” said Berkha Gupta, executive director of LGBT Youthline. “Especially given that they have no other resources for 2s LGBTQ youth listed other than ours at that time.”
The board says their decision to remove the website had nothing to do with Volpe’s article, but does say a YouTube link cited in that article, was forwarded to them. There has been criticism that the school board caved in to the former MP.
“He’s promoting hate against trans individuals and trans students and he’s promoting hate against students that may be LGBT. He’s also promoting hate against their families,” said Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.
In a statement to CityNews the TCDSB said:
“We recognize the services YouthLine provides to LGBTQ2s youth offering peer support. It was brought to our attention that their website had third-party resources which included content that is not appropriate for school-aged children. The link was removed to allow staff an opportunity to connect with Youth Line to better understand their resources and to ensure continued support for youth in need of services.”
“Letting a school board, especially a Catholic school board make decisions on what is appropriate and inappropriate content on an LGBTQ organization’s website is a very slippery slope,” said Gupta. “I think if TCDSB had come to the table saying ‘hey can we have some conversations with you?’, this situation would have looked very different … and 2s organizations are tired and have continuously been under scrutiny of jumping through hoops to be considered appropriate to be given to students.”
On Wednesday night, TCDSB trustee Norm Di Pasquale tweeted that the “invaluable resource” was back on the board’s website.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is criticizing new provincial lockdown rules in Ontario, saying they are unfair to small businesses.
For the 28 days beginning Thursday, Ontario’s non-essential retail stores can only open between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Tuesday that grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores and gas stations can keep their regular hours.
The new rules come after the province’s latest models suggested that without new restrictions, daily COVID-19 deaths could double between now and the end of February, with Ontario Premier Doug Ford warning the health care system is “on the brink of collapse.”
CFIB president Dan Kelly said he worries the new policies limiting opening hours risk further crowding at essential retailers like Walmart stores or Amazon warehouses instead. (Walmart Canada said it will comply with government restrictions and continue using a custom app to count capacity, as well as doing temperature checks for associates and other wellness measures.)
“We think that allowing small firms to serve one or three customers at a time would actually take the pressure off of the big box stores,” said Kelly.
Kelly said the policies announced by Ford’s government are confusing for non-essential retailers, which are being told they can stay open with limited hours even as their customers are told that non-essential trips are banned altogether.
“I don’t understand why a small bookstore can’t hand the book – outdoors – to a customer after eight. But you can line up at Costco and buy it,” Kelly said.
“If you send a product to a third-party delivery (service), like through the mail or through a courier, the … restriction won’t exist. But if you, as a business owner, happen to deliver it on your way home to your customer nearby, that’s prohibited. And we’re struggling to figure out on what planet that helps stop the spread of COVID.”
Kelly says his group, which represents 42,000 Ontario businesses, isn’t calling for stores to be wide open, but would like to see restrictions closer to those enacted by British Columbia.
“Ford has toasted his relationship with small business owners,” said Kelly. “No province in Canada has locked down small retailers while allowing box stores to remain open. Not a single one. All of them have medical offices of health advisors at the provincial and municipal level.”
Yet other business groups had praise for Ontario’s new policies.
Two construction industry groups said the new restrictions on its industry, which are similar to those seen last April, are necessary.
“While the new restrictions will slow the delivery of new housing for some projects, case levels have gotten to the point that all sectors and residents must be part of the solution,” said a joint statement the Building Industry and Land Development Association and the Ontario Home Builders’ Association.
“The government of Ontario continues to show confidence in the construction industry to operate in a safe environment … We will continue to work with members to remind them of the immense responsibility that comes with Essential Workplace designation under the Emergency Orders.”
The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters group applauded a policy it said would improve workplace safety by allowing more access to COVID-19 testing.
“The manufacturing sector has worked aggressively to introduce protocols and provide a safe work environment,” said Dennis Darby, the manufacturing group’s chief executive, in a statement.
“The announcement today by Premier Ford that the sector could continue to operate through the pandemic while maintaining these standards is welcomed by manufacturers across the province.”
Still, the rest of the supply chain may start to feel the effects of struggles for small retailers, as independent shops aren’t ordering stock for fear there will be no customers, said Albert Stortchak, chair of the Broadview Danforth BIA in Toronto.
With inventory from Christmas still languishing on shelves and no end in sight, Stortchak said it can be tough for local shops to watch big box retailers “eat their dinner.”
“We are willing to step up and be responsible and do our part,” said Stortchak.
“We’re not against big box (stores) … it’s just the inconsistency between big business and small business.”
The U.S. House rushed ahead Tuesday toward impeaching President Donald Trump for the deadly Capitol attack, taking time only to try to persuade his vice-president to push him out first. Trump showed no remorse, blaming impeachment itself for the “tremendous anger” in America.
Already scheduled to leave office next week, Trump is on the verge of becoming the only president in history to be twice impeached. His incendiary rhetoric at a rally ahead of the Capitol uprising is now in the impeachment charge against him, even as the falsehoods he spread about election fraud are still being championed by some Republicans.
The House voted Tuesday night on a resolution urging Vice-President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump with a Cabinet vote and “declare what is obvious to a horrified nation: That the President is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office.”
Democrats proceeded even though Pence said he would not do what the resolution asked. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he said it would not be in the best interest of the nation and it was “time to unite our country as we prepare to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden.”
Meanwhile, four Republican lawmakers, including third-ranking House GOP leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming, announced they would vote to impeach Trump on Wednesday, cleaving the Republican leadership and the party itself.
“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” said Cheney in a statement. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
As lawmakers reconvened at the Capitol for the first time since the bloody siege, they were bracing for more violence ahead of Democrat Biden’s inauguration, Jan. 20.
“All of us have to do some soul searching,” said Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, imploring other Republicans to join.
Trump, meanwhile, warned the lawmakers off impeachment and suggested it was the drive to oust him that was dividing the country.
“To continue on this path, I think it’s causing tremendous danger to our country, and it’s causing tremendous anger,” Trump said.
In his first remarks to reporters since last week’s violence, the outgoing president offered no condolences for those dead or injured, only saying, “I want no violence.”
With Pence’s agreement to invoke the 25th Amendment ruled out, the House will move swiftly to impeachment on Wednesday.
Trump faces a single charge — “incitement of insurrection” — in the impeachment resolution after the most serious and deadly domestic incursion at the Capitol in the nation’s history.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, argued that Trump must go because, as she said in Spanish, he’s “loco” – crazy.
Republican Reps. John Katko of New York, a former federal prosecutor, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, an Air Force veteran, and Fred Upton of Michigan announced they, too, would vote to impeach.
But Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said the “cancel culture” was just trying to cancel the president. He said the Democrats had been trying to reverse the 2016 election ever since Trump took office and were finishing his term the same way.
Though a handful of House Republicans will join the impeachment vote — and leaders are allowing them to vote as they wish — it’s far from clear there would then be the two-thirds vote needed to convict from the narrowly divided Senate. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania did join Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska over the weekend in calling for Trump to “go away as soon as possible.”
Unprecedented events, with just over a week remaining in Trump’s term, are unfolding in a nation bracing for more unrest.
The FBI has warned ominously of potential armed protests by Trump loyalists ahead of Biden’s inauguration, and Capitol Police urged lawmakers to be on alert. The inauguration ceremony on the west steps of the Capitol will be off limits to the public.
With new security, lawmakers were required to pass through metal detectors Tuesday night to enter the House chamber, not far from where Capitol police, guns drawn, had barricaded the door against the rioters. Some Republican lawmakers complained about it.
A Capitol police officer died from injuries suffered in the riot, and police shot a woman during the violence. Three other people died in what authorities said were medical emergencies.
Biden has said it’s important to ensure that the “folks who engaged in sedition and threatening the lives, defacing public property, caused great damage — that they be held accountable.”
Fending off concerns that an impeachment trial would bog down Biden’s first days in office, the president-elect is encouraging senators to divide their time between taking up his priorities of confirming his nominees and approving COVID relief while also conducting the trial.
As Congress resumed, an uneasiness swept the halls. More lawmakers tested positive for COVID-19 after sheltering during the siege. Many lawmakers were voting by proxy rather than come to Washington, a process that was put in place last year to limit the health risks of travel.
One of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was among those echoing the president, saying “impeachment at this time would have the opposite effect of bringing our country together.”
The impeachment bill drafted by Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Ted Lieu of California, joined by Raskin of Maryland and Jerrold Nadler of New York draws from Trump’s own false statements about his election defeat to Biden.
Judges across the country, including some nominated by Trump, have repeatedly dismissed cases challenging the election results, and former Attorney General William Barr, a Trump ally, has said there was no sign of widespread fraud.
Like the resolution to invoke the 25th Amendment, the impeachment legislation also details Trump’s pressure on state officials in Georgia to “find” him more votes, as well as his White House rally ahead of the Capitol siege, in which he encouraged thousands of supporters last Wednesday to “fight like hell” and march to the building.
The mob overpowered police, broke through security lines and windows and rampaged through the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to scatter as they were finalizing Biden’s victory over Trump in the Electoral College.
While some have questioned impeaching the president so close to the end of his term, there is precedent. In 1876, during the Ulysses Grant administration, War Secretary William Belknap was impeached by the House the day he resigned, and the Senate convened a trial months later. He was acquitted.
Trump was impeached by the House in 2019 over dealings with Ukraine and acquitted in 2020 by the Senate.
he Ontario government has declared a second provincial emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic as case numbers continue to spike.
Effective Jan. 14 at 12:01 a.m., a stay-at-home order is being issued province-wide, requiring everyone to stay home with exceptions for essential purposes.
This means all businesses must ensure that any employee who can work from home, does work from home.
Premier Doug Ford said while making the announcement, “The system is on the brink of collapse.”
“The dangerous U.K. variant of COVID is being found across the province … if we don’t move fast, our hospital ICUs could be overwhelmed by the beginning of February,” added Ford. He says health officials tell him it’s not a matter of if the new U.K. strain will take hold, but when and how wide.
Outdoor gatherings are now limited to five people and wearing a face mask or covering is now recommended outdoors when you can’t physically distance. Going outside for exercise is still permitted.
Individuals who live alone are still allowed to join with another household to “help reduce the negative impacts of social isolation.”
There was no change to the number of people allowed at weddings, funerals and religious services, remaining at 10 outdoors and 10 indoors, however they must be compliant with mask rules.
Schools in hotspot regions not returning for in-person learning until Feb. 10
All schools in the hotspot regions of Toronto, York, Hamilton, Peel and Windsor-Essex will also not return for in-person learning until Feb. 10. There will also be further measures taken at schools which include masking required for Grades 1 to 3 and requirements to wear masks outdoors, enhanced screening and an increase in testing.
An announcement on when schools in other Public Health regions will open is expected on Jan. 20.
Non-essential retailers such as liquor stores, hardware stores and those offering curbside-pick up, can only be open between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Stores that sell groceries, pharmacies and restaurants are not restricted by these hours.
All construction sites deemed non-essential will also be closed.
These enhanced measures are expected to be in place until at least Feb. 11.
Ford says there will be an inspection blitz at big box stores like Costco and Walmart in the coming days to ensure they are properly following COVID protocols.
“The people of Ontario, we’re strong, we’re resilient … tough times don’t last but tough people do,” said Ford.
There will also be greater authority given to officials who will enforce the new orders. People who are non-compliant will be fined and further penalties could be up to a year in jail.
Advocates have also been calling for another moratorium on evictions that was introduced during the first lockdown.
The Ford government says they are “exploring all options available to put a temporary residential evictions moratorium in place, and will have more to say in the coming days.”
The province will also be providing up to 300,000 COVID-19 tests per week to key sectors including manufacturing, warehouses, long-term care homes and schools in order to quickly identify and isolate positive cases.
he Ontario government is expected to provide more details Wednesday regarding its newly issued stay-at-home order, which takes effect Thursday.
The province says it will publish the “legal parameters” for the order online and offer more clarification on the measure.
As of 12:01 a.m. Thursday, residents will have to stay home except for essential purposes such as grocery shopping, accessing health care and exercising.
The province says police and bylaw officers will have the power to enforce the stay-at-home order and issue tickets to rule-breakers, but hasn’t given details on how that will play out.
The order was announced Tuesday as the province declared a state of emergency — its second of the COVID-19 pandemic — and unveiled a series of new restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus.
They include prolonging the pause on in-person learning in schools in five southern Ontario hot spots — Toronto, Hamilton, Peel, York and Windsor-Essex — to Feb. 10.
Child-care centres for kids not yet in school will remain open, however.
The government has also restricted hours of operation for non-essential retailers currently offering delivery and curbside pickup to between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., and imposed a five-person cap on outdoor social gatherings.
Wearing a mask is also now recommended outdoors when physical distancing is difficult.
The new restrictions were announced hours after the province released projections that show the virus is on track to overwhelm Ontario’s health-care system.
One of the experts behind the projections said that if the province’s COVID-19 positivity rate is at five per cent, there will be more than 20,000 new cases reported each day by the middle of next month.
If the rate climbs to seven per cent, that means the province will see 40,000 new daily cases.
The projections also indicate deaths from COVID-19 will surpass those in the pandemic’s first wave unless people dramatically reduce their contact with others.
