The city of Toronto is opening up all of its COVID-19 clinics to walk-ins and allowing youth to also walk-in to the clinics, starting on Thursday.
Anyone 12 years of age and older will be able to walk into any of the nine city-run clinics and get a first or second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The city initially only opened up the Toronto Congress Centre to walk-ins on July 8, but after a successful first day, walk-ins were expanded to three other clinics.
The walk-in appointments are available from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. and those who walk-in can expect a short wait.
A release from Toronto Public Health says by lowering the barrier to vaccines across Toronto, they hope to reach the 20 per cent of Toronto adults who have not received a first dose and the 125,000 people who have a second dose scheduled for later in the year.
Toronto reached over 65 per cent of adults fully vaccinated earlier this week.
The city is also holding a #VaxtheNorth clinic this weekend in Mel Lastman Square from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. to help bolster the vaccine campaign in North York.
Walk-ins will be offered for anyone 12 years of age and older or you can book an appointment through the North York Toronto Health Partners booking website.
Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table has released its recommendations on whether the province should be issuing a vaccine certificate to those who have been fully vaccinated.
The 21-page brief released Wednesday suggests they could allow for the reopening of high-risk settings sooner and/or at increased capacity.
It says the certificate could be used to regulate entry into high-risk locations including gyms, restaurants, cultural and sports events and could also be used in settings like schools and workplaces that require mandatory vaccination.
The science table brief says on a longer-term basis, vaccine certificates can serve as a verifiable, secure, standardized, accessible and portable records of immunization.
The report also said given the “anticipated seasonality” of COVID-19 as well as variants of concern, implementing a vaccine certificate could be useful if public health measures need to be reintroduced.
It also acknowledges there are important legal, ethical, privacy and accessibility issues that would need to be addressed should the vaccine certificates be issued.
Premier Doug Ford has been strongly opposed to the idea of a vaccine passport, saying, “We’re not going to have a split society.”
“I’ve never believed in proof. Everyone gets their proof when they get the vaccination,” said Ford last week.
The Toronto Region Board of Trade has called on the Ontario government this week to introduce a vaccine passport system for non-essential business activity.
It also comes as Quebec moves to impose their own vaccine-passport system in September in areas where COVID-19 outbreaks occur, requiring people to prove they are vaccinated to enter places such as gyms and bars.
The Kraken expansion draft lacked drama after all 30 picks leaked out hours before they were revealed, but it had plenty of Seattle to introduce the NHL’s 32nd franchise.
One pick was announced by an octopus from the Seattle Aquarium. Another came written on a fish thrown in the city’s legendary Pike Place Market.
As far as the players selected, the Kraken got their goaltender in late-blooming Chris Driedger, perhaps their first captain in defenceman Mark Giordano and veteran forwards Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann. They passed on big-money goaltender Carey Price fresh off backstopping Montreal to the Stanley Cup Final, choosing instead to sign Driedger to a $10.5 million, three-year contract.
“When I kind of came to terms, I had no clue who my goalie partner would be,” Driedger said. “I’m kind of just betting on myself in that situation. In the NHL there’s going to be competition wherever you go.”
Price’s cap hit of $10.5 million – annually – for the next five seasons, plus the 34-year-old’s questionable injury history, led to Seattle passing on him.
“Any time you see a name like Carey Price available, you have to consider it,” Kraken general manager Ron Francis said. “Certainly we did that, we had a lot of discussions. And at the end of the day, we made the decision that we did to go in a different direction.”
Seattle also took goalies Vitek Vanecek from Washington and Joey Daccord from Ottawa. Driedger and Vanecek combine to cost less than half of Price.
Giordano, 37, has the biggest cap hit of any player the Kraken selected but could soon wear the “C” when they open their inaugural season at Vegas and then open Climate Pledge Arena Oct. 23 against Vancouver.
“It feels a little bit different today, but it’s been crazy last day or so,” Giordano said. “This is the first time in my career I’ve ever been drafted, so thank you to the Kraken and I’m happy to be here.”
Eberle, one of a handful of players on site at Gas Works Park on Lake Union, called it a “new challenge.”
“You don’t get many opportunities to be part of a new franchise,” said Eberle, who came from the New York Islanders. “Any time you get that opportunity to bring the Cup to a city that’s never had it before, it’s pretty special.”
Seattle had the Stanley Cup once before in 1917 when the city’s team was the Metropolitans.
It’s up to Francis and the Kraken to try to bring it back, and the expansion strategy seemed to mimic the Vegas Golden Knights making some off-the-board picks rather than taking big stars.
“I have a tremendous amount of faith in Ron Francis’ ability to build a team,” Driedger said. “He knows what he’s doing.”
Along with Driedger, Francis agreed to terms with pending free agent defencemen Adam Larsson and Jamie Oleskiak. Larsson got a $16 million, four-year deal to become the pick from the Edmonton Oilers, and Oleksiak got $23 million over five years.
Boston defenceman Jeremy Lauzon will go down in the record books as Seattle’s first expansion draft selection. Kole Lind from rival Vancouver was the 30th, and the Kraken did not announce any trades – a far cry from Vegas’ wheeling and dealing in 2017.
“A great list of guys here,” Oleksiak said about Seattle’s initial roster. “It’s a new team team and it offers a lot of opportunities for guys and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
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AP Hockey Writers Stephen Whyno and John Wawrow contributed to this report.
Toronto police say two people, a man and a woman, have died after a two-car crash in Etobicoke on Tuesday.
It happened around 4:12 p.m. at Carlingview Drive and Constellation Court in the Dixon Road and Highway 427 area.
The debris-scattered crash scene shows a black minivan leaning against a broken light pole and a totaled red vehicle propped up against a nearby building.
Police believe excessive speed was likely a factor.
One of the victims died at the scene, while the second person died after being rushed to hospital.
Police said road closures in the immediate area will likely last several hours.
CALGARY — Canada’s environment minister says extreme weather conditions across the country should be a wake-up call for people resisting taking action against climate change.
Wildfires are raging out of control, forcing residents out of their homes, in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
A state of emergency goes into effect in B.C. on Wednesday to prepare for potential mass evacuations as nearly 300 fires burned across that province and threatened communities. Two people died in the village of Lytton, B.C., earlier this month after much of the community was destroyed by fire.
Farmers in the Prairies are also suffering from severe drought conditions, while weather alerts are in effect across Western Canada due to a dense cloud of smoke.
“I think the events that we’re seeing this summer are probably underlying that even more for Canadians,” Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Tuesday in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“The tragic event in Lytton, I think, was quite shocking for many people … certainly the forest fires, but also the flooding that we’ve seen in the last number of years.”
Wilkinson was in Calgary to announce a mitigation plan related to the 2013 floods in southern Alberta that led to five deaths and billions of dollars in damage.
He said all of the data suggests the extreme weather won’t be improving in the future.
“I think people are starting to understand that it’s even more proximate to them, that the impacts of climate change are with us already,” he said.
“We need to take action to make sure we’re not making the problem worse but, of course, we’re also going to need to learn to adapt to the changes that are with us already.”
Wilkinson, who grew up in Saskatchewan and now serves as the MP for North Vancouver, said he understands why some people still fight against taking action on climate change.
He said, however, that it’s a reality that extreme weather events will be more frequent and more intense in the future.
Wilkinson said the time to take action is now.
“I think it’s an opportunity to come together as Canadians and to double down in terms of being part of what has to be an international consensus and international solution,” he said.
“I think it is the defining issue of our generation and certainly of our children, and I think that Canada has an opportunity to play an important role.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2021.
Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press
Toronto police have issued an arrest warrant for a 32-year-old Toronto man in connection with an alleged “deliberate” fatal hit-and-run.
Police said they were called just after 9 p.m. to the Polson and Cherry Streets area for a report that a pedestrian had been struck by a truck.
When officers arrived, one of the victims had no vital signs and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
A second person that police said was also struck by the vehicle suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver of the truck that police allege was involved in the collision had already fled the scene when emergency services had arrived.
Investigators said there was an argument prior to the collision and one man allegedly got into a pick-up truck and “deliberately struck the pedestrian.”
Following an investigation, police have obtained an arrest warrant for Robert Cada for second-degree murder and attempted murder.
He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, blue jean shorts and white shoes. The vehicle believed to be involved in the incident has since been recovered.
The victim of the incident has not yet identified by police. A memorial has been started close to the site where the incident occurred.
Former Green leader Elizabeth May is speaking out after months of near-silence on the internal strife engulfing the party she headed for 13 years.
In a statement to media Tuesday afternoon, May says “rumours” about her involvement in party power struggles have pushed her to clarify she has no role in any of the Greens’ governing bodies.
Members of the federal council, which governs most of the party’s affairs, have clashed with leader Annamie Paul for months over issues that range from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to staff layoffs and funding for Paul’s riding campaign in Toronto Centre.
May says she did have first-hand knowledge of Green MP Jenica Atwin’s defection to the Liberals last month, a loss of one-third of the Green caucus that May called “painful” but no cause for “misplaced anger, blame and name-calling.”
May says she fully supports the Green party, adding simply that “our leader is Annamie Paul and only our members have authority to call that into question.”
Falling short of a full-throated endorsement, the statement comes a day after Paul held a news conference to show her party has pushed past a period of tumultuous acrimony ahead of a likely election this year.
The lingering tensions have left Greens in limbo and Paul reeling from a temporarily sidelined threat to her leadership.
Paul confirmed Monday that a non-confidence motion against her planned for Tuesday was cancelled, and that no similar motions will be proposed by the current federal council or before the next party convention.
“We need to pull together for what appears to be an imminent election campaign,” May said Tuesday.
A man is dead after he was found shot at a plaza in Toronto’s west end early Tuesday morning.
Emergency crews were called to Westown Plaza, at Dixon Road and Islington Avenue, just after midnight for reports of a man shot and laying on the ground.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
It is not yet known if the man was shot at the plaza.
There is no word on suspects.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario has dismissed both the defence and the Crown’s appeals in the case of an off-duty Toronto cop who was convicted of assaulting a young Black man.
In November 2020, Michael Theriault was sentenced to nine months in jail for brutally beating Dafonte Miller in December 2016, leaving him with a ruptured eye. He was also sentenced to 12 months of probation following his jail term, along with a five-year weapons prohibition.
He was acquitted of aggravated assault and obstruction of justice charges as was his brother Christian Theriault.
In May of this year, his lawyers challenged the verdict, saying the assault conviction was unreasonable based on the evidence, and Theriault’s nine-month jail sentence is outside the normal range.
The Crown appealed Theriault’s acquittal on the other charges, arguing that an Ontario judge made errors in assessing issues related to self-defence and unlawful arrest. However, the Crown stated that it would seek a new trial only if the defence appeal succeeded and his conviction for common assault was not upheld.
Justice of Appeal Michael Tulloch said the Crown’s appeal was dismissed without considering its merits, given their position on a retrial, because the defence appeal was dismissed as well.
Dafonte Millers lawyers Julian Falconer and Asha James held a virtual press conference on Monday afternoon with Miller and his mother Lisa in attendance.
Falconer said he was glad to see that Justice Tulloch acknowledged the role of anti-Black racism in the case and recognized that the trial judge had taken that important social context into account. James added that the judgment recognizes that anti-Black racism impacts the way Black communities feel about and respond to the police and how policing is handled in those communities.
Miller called the decision to uphold Theriault’s conviction a huge step forward.
“The acknowledgement of racism in police interactions, not only in my situation but other people who go through the same situations, was very important,” he said, “I’m grateful for all the hard work of the Crown and everyone who has been behind me, helping this stuff go forward.”
Lisa Miller said she was glad the ordeal was finally coming to a close.
“As much as it hurt me that Michael Theriault himself couldn’t just accept, apologize and give us something to heal, I’m just grateful that we’re at the point now where we can actually move on and try to rebuild,” she said.
Falconer also lambasted the justice system that allowed what he called “the real bad actors” — people he alleges to be involved in covering up the case to protect Theriault — to entirely escape any repercussions.
“Our system doesn’t really want to hold them accountable. So the chiefs of police who covered up this crime against Dafonte Miller have retired … inspectors who magically didn’t connect with SIU and furthered the coverup have retired out of accountability,” he said. “And so while this is an important day in respect of Michael Theriault, the story has not been told and will not be told until those who were in charge, who orchestrated the coverup of these crimes are held accountable.”
He added that the civil action being taken by Miller and his family does have the potential to hold these “bad actors” accountable through private litigation.
“But it is an embarrassment that retiring out of accountability is possible in this province and it is proof that the system is rigged,” he said.
Ontario colleges and universities should prepare for all in-person classes and activities to resume this fall without capacity limits or physical distancing, the government says, though many institutions will still use a mix of in-person and online learning.
The Ministry of Colleges and Universities has told the institutions to have plans for how learning will continue in the event of COVID-19 outbreaks.
“While we must remain vigilant and responsive to the trajectory of COVID-19, I am optimistic that the (post-secondary education) sector will resume many of the cherished in-person experiences that have been on pause for so long,” deputy minister Shelley Tapp wrote in a recent memo to the institutions.
Tapp said it’s “anticipated” that all in-person instruction and on-campus activities will be allowed again this fall, after more than a year since they were paused due to the pandemic.
Universities and colleges will still have to follow all public health and workplace safety rules, including requiring masks indoors, Tapp said.
The schools will still have flexibility to offer teaching in a variety of ways that best suit their needs, Tapp wrote, including virtual and hybrid models.
The University of Windsor is planning for on-campus activities to resume and for a mix of face-to-face, hybrid and online courses. A spokeswoman said a variety of factors went into deciding which methods would be used for which courses, including class sizes, student population, facilities, and whether the course relies on lectures or labs.
“For example, students in fine arts-acting have a strong need to have their course material delivered in person, while other students who receive their courses in a more traditional lecture-style way do not,” said Lori Lewis.
Capacity limits and distancing are currently part of the university’s fall plan, but Lewis said it is constantly evolving.
McMaster University is offering courses that are listed as either in-person, online, virtual, or a combination. It is telling students that for “in-person” courses, “there will be varying levels of in-person engagement throughout the term.”
Seneca College is also planning a mix of four approaches: online, in person, hybrid — which will involve some online instruction and some hands-on lab time in class — and flexible, which involves students choosing when to watch a lecture online and when to attend in person, for example.
In case of COVID-19 outbreaks, institutions must have a “continuity of education” plan ready by September, including information on health protocols in the event of an emergency and how instruction will continue if in-person learning is disrupted.
Specific guidance from the ministry on measures such as masks, screening and cleaning is set to be issued in early August.
The ministry is encouraging schools to use rapid antigen testing for routine screening of asymptomatic people, as well as wastewater surveillance for levels of COVID-19.
The NDP’s colleges and universities critic, Laura Mae Lindo, said resuming classes “is more complicated than just opening the doors,” and called for the government to provide increased funding, including for onsite rapid testing and upgraded ventilation systems.
The province announced approximately $100 million in March for post-secondary schools that have lost revenue while incurring additional pandemic-related expenses.
The Council of Ontario Universities has said the institutions are facing a shortfall of $500 million related to the pandemic.
Provincewide, there were 130 new cases of COVID-19 reported Monday and no new deaths. Eighteen of the new cases are in Toronto, 17 in Peel Region, 16 in the Region of Waterloo, 14 in Hamilton and 10 each in Grey Bruce and Middlesex-London.
There were 11,567 tests completed in the previous day. There are 151 people in intensive care in hospitals due to COVID-related critical illness and 94 patients are on ventilators.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said 91,320 vaccine doses were administered in the previous day, for a total of more than 18.2 million.
