globalnews.ca Main News

Ontario is set to make a decision early next week on whether to expand eligibility of fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines, amid a seventh wave of the virus, the province’s top doctor said Thursday.Ontario has been under pressure to expand eligibility for fourth doses of a COVID-19 vaccine beyond people aged 60 and older, immunocompromised people and Indigenous populations, as Quebec has done. That province has opened up eligibility to all adults.Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr.

Legendary actor James Caan, who starred in the Godfather trilogy and other renowned movies like Misery and The Gambler, died on July 6, according to a tweet posted to his official account.

ArriveCAN is the digital beast that just won’t die.The app was supposed to be a short-term solution to make sure everyone who entered Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic followed the government’s strict 14-day quarantine rules. Border union claims government stats about ArriveCAN app ‘absolutely false’ It was launched in April 2020 and made mandatory in November of that year.But as vaccination rates rise, and as other public health measures fall, the app has quietly morphed into something else.And anyone who hoped the app might soon disappear is likely going to be disappointed with the results.“ArriveCAN was originally created for COVID-19, but it has technological capacity beyond that,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said during a June 28 press conference.Mendocino’s remarks signal plans to use ArriveCAN as part of the Liberal government’s efforts to “modernize our border” and “shrink the amount of time” it takes to go through customs.A recent update to the app, which the government released without fanfare, allows passengers arriving at Toronto Pearson and Vancouver International airports to complete their customs declaration form before landing in Canada.This may not seem like a big change, but it’s a radical shift from what the app was originally intended to do: collect public health data.“This is a bait and switch,” said Bianca Wylie, a technology expert and partner at Digital Public.

Who killed Rita Horbyk? A war crime in Ukraine, heartbreak and a flawed investigation The commander’s deadly order initiated a sequence of events that defies simple narratives about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Unwilling to kill innocents, two Russian soldiers disobeyed and tried to save a woman and her daughter. When Russian troops opened fire, the woman was killed.So was one of the insubordinate soldiers.

Christian Dubé says he’ll be holding a briefing today to reinforce public health advice.The province’s Health Department reported 13 new deaths linked to COVID-19 and a 56-patient increase in hospitalizations Wednesday.There were 1,497 people hospitalized with the disease, including 40 in intensive care, and more than 7,000 health care workers off the job in connection with COVID-19. 17M Canadians got Omicron in 5 months, new federal report says Dubé, who will be joined by public health director Dr.

Frequent air traveller Kelly Laing was flying from Toronto to Saint John, N.B., late last month on a flight she takes often between the two cities, but this time her checked luggage went missing.

Boris Johnson has resigned as Britain’s prime minister, bringing an end to one of the rockiest tenures for a world leader in modern times after a series of scandals rocked his government’s confidence in him.

A Montreal woman with curly hair says airport security has searched her locks multiple times when travelling, without any specific reason.

Canadian swimmer Mary-Sophie Harvey said on Instagram on Wednesday that she was drugged on the final night of the World Championships, during which time she suffered a rib sprain and a concussion.

trophy hunter who was known for killing large animals and helping others do the same was shot and left for dead on the side of the road in South Africa, police have confirmed.Riaan Naude, 55, was the owner and founder of Pro Hunt Africa, a tour group that facilitates paid wildlife hunting trips in the country’s northeastern province of Limpopo. Donald Trump Jr.

COVID-19 deaths have been confirmed in Alberta, according to a tweet by the provincial government on Wednesday.The province released its latest pandemic figures on Wednesday, summing up the week of June 28 to July 4.With the latest fatalities, the total number of Albertans whose deaths have been linked to the coronavirus is now at 4,636 since the pandemic began.Despite the deaths, the number of people in Alberta hospitals with COVID-19 continues to fall, down to 568 from 589 a week earlier. However, the number of COVID-19 patients being treated in intensive-care units increased this week, up to 21 from 13 a week ago.Out of 7,771 COVID-19 tests completed between June 28 and July 4, Alberta Health said 1,124 resulted in positive tests.

COVID-19 Immunity Task Force reveal how quickly the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and its subvariants spread across the country at the end of 2021 and the first few months of this year.The task force illustrates that 17 million Canadians were infected in only five months, between December 2021 and May 2022, its data suggests.That represents an average of more than 100,000 infections a day.Task Force officials are calling this an “Omicron Tsunami.”“This variant was extremely transmissible. It caused people to have asymptomatic infections, infections with no symptoms so they went about doing their daily thing.

BA.5 Omicron subvariant.The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table says wastewater signals, test positivity and hospitalizations from the virus are rising and the virus is showing exponential growth in regions across the province.Dr. Fahad Razak, scientific director of the group, says the highly infectious BA.5 variant also appears to be more immune evasive, meaning people who were recently infected can catch the virus again soon after.

COVID-19, according to new research compiled by Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force.But despite this “Omicron tsunami” in Canada, as task force experts call it, emerging data shows not everyone who gets sick with COVID-19 will develop immunity from the infection.In fact, one in every eight people who contract the virus do not develop antibodies in their blood from their illness. And children are half as likely to develop immunity from an infection, according to the data released in June.“So forget going to some kind of ‘COVID party,’” said Dr.

Patrick Brown, a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race, has been disqualified, according to a statement released by the party on Tuesday.

A majority of First Nations chiefs in Canada have voted against the suspension of Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald.

Longtime Burger King employee Kevin Ford recently celebrated his 27-year anniversary of working for the fast-food chain, and despite not having missed a day of work in that time, he was given a paltry goodie bag as a thank you for his dedication and loyalty.

The family of a 40-year-old man charged with child luring involving an Edmonton teenager released a statement Tuesday.

summer camps says at least three overnight camps have temporarily shut down following COVID-19 outbreaks, mostly among counsellors.Association des camps du Québec executive director Eric Beauchamp says about 500 children and staff were sent back home over the past few days.Beauchamp says there were no COVID-19 outbreaks at overnight camps last summer, which were allowed to reopen after they were prohibited to operate for the summer of 2020 because of the pandemic. Quebec’s jump in COVID-19 cases linked to new variants, top doctor says He says widespread staff shortages are making the situation even harder to handle, adding that there are little to no COVID-19 health orders in place compared with last summer.Beauchamp says his group is meeting with Health Department officials Tuesday and will ask them to reimpose some health orders, such as mandatory masking and COVID-19 testing for children and staff before they arrive to camps.

B.C. woman with life-threatening injuries after serious crash in N.S.

Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) is adding a new COVID-19 vaccination clinic at a third mall in London, Ont.The MLHU says after successful clinics at CF Masonville Place and White Oaks Mall, a new clinic will open at Westmount Shopping Centre starting Thursday, July 7.“With the arrival of summer and warmer weather, many people are spending more time outdoors and they may not be thinking of COVID-19 right now,” said Dr. Alex Summers, medical officer of health at the MLHU.

COVID-19 pandemic.Downtown staple Nathan Detroit’s Sandwich Pad will be closing for good later this month after more than four decades in business.The eatery, located in the underground beneath the Fairmont Hotel and the Richardson building, said much of its business comes from downtown workers — a group that hasn’t fully rebounded since the pandemic began.Brenlea Yamron, who runs Nathan Detroit’s with her sister Karen after taking over from their late father 20 years ago, told 680 CJOB’s The Start that the outpouring of support from the public is making the tough decision a little easier.“It’s hard, but we are so enjoying all that Nathan’s has given our family,” Yamron said.“We’re so incredibly overwhelmed by the people out there. We are lovers of Winnipeg, we are promoters of Winnipeg — we’ve all raised our families in Winnipeg.“Winnipeg … man, are you making us proud right now.”Yamron said that while the closure will give their mother, Fraydel, the opportunity to finally retire after 40+ years, the future remains unwritten for the sisters.“My sister and I are definitely way too young to retire, so we’re going to be looking for something else,” she said.“Whatever it’ll be, we’ll enjoy hopefully a little time off and then start looking — but it will definitely be in Winnipeg.”The restaurant will be making an announcement in the near future about the plans for Nathan Detroit’s final days.The president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce says it’s a simple fact that businesses like Nathan Detroit’s need more people downtown in order to stay open, and that as more and more businesses take on debt to make it through, many have reached their limit.

A recently built stairway leading into the Halifax Harbour on in the city’s downtown waterfront will soon get safety signage.

Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, who went missing in Hong Kong five years ago, was due to go on trial in China on Monday, the Canadian embassy in Beijing said.

Canada has now confirmed 300 monkeypox cases as of July 4, according to an announcement from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) on Monday.

Australia’s largest city in a flood emergency that was impacting 50,000 people, officials said Tuesday.Emergency response teams made 100 rescues overnight of people trapped in cars on flooded roads or in inundated homes in the Sydney area, State Emergency Service manager Ashley Sullivan said.Days of torrential rain have caused dams to overflow and waterways to break their banks, bringing a fourth flood emergency in 16 months to parts of the city of 5 million people. Thousands evacuated from Australia’s Sydney amid heavy rains, floods The New South Wales state government declared a disaster across 23 local government areas overnight, activating federal government financial assistance for flood victims.Evacuation orders and warnings to prepare to abandon homes impacted 50,000 people, up from 32,000 on Monday, New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said.“This event is far from over.

TORONTO – Julia Budzinski, the 17-year-old daughter of first-base coach Mark (Bud) Budzinski, died in a tubing accident in Virginia on the weekend.Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources spokesperson Paige Pearson said in a statement that two girls fell off a tube being pulled behind a boat on the James River on Saturday.As the boat operator returned to get them out of the water, the boat hit a wave causing it to be pushed on top of a 17-year-old victim, striking her with the propeller.“It was a very happy, fun last day on earth for her,” Budzinski’s mother Monica, who says she was with her daughter at the boat, said at a vigil at Julia’s Virginia high school Sunday night. “Sadly obviously … but it was happy, laughing, having a good time, and that’s the way I’m going to remember her, that’s the way everybody needs to remember her.

Air Canada’s sudden cut to its summer flight schedule fuelled another chaotic long weekend at Canadian airports and left many customers stranded and frustrated.

Child-care operators have until the provincial deadline of Sept. 1, to confirm their intentions to participate in the $10-a-day child-care program.Once approved, an operator has 60 days to refund families 25 per cent of fees paid retroactive to April 1 for eligible children.

Fourth of July parade in the Chicago-area suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, according to local officials. Police are actively looking for the shooter.At a press conference on Monday, law enforcement officials told media that the shooting was “very random” and “very intentional,” and it appears the shooter was on a roof with a high-powered rifle.

COVID-19 vaccine doses.Interim Leader Peter Tabuns says details are needed now that a federal immunization panel is recommending the shots and Quebec has moved ahead with fourth doses for all adults.He says the NDP want easy and equitable access to the shots, including community clinics and availability in doctors’ offices.

Unearthing the evidence of Russia’s war crimes in east Ukraine The incident is among thousands under investigation by Ukrainian authorities, who are treating Russia’s invasion not only as a war but also as a series of war crimes.But it reveals the challenges of that approach, especially during a large-scale armed conflict like the Ukraine war.An investigation by Global News has found that overwhelmed prosecutors failed to conduct basic groundwork before publicly announcing their findings and their suspect, a Russian commander.The family was not interviewed. Captured Russian soldiers who were prosecution witnesses were allowed to leave the country in prisoner swaps.

private foster care and group homes.But interviews with more than two dozen former workers, child welfare experts, ministry documents, and court filings tell the story of a private company that some former employees say placed profits over the care of vulnerable children. Experts in the field of group and foster care homes also cite the company’s troubled history, which included a fire at one of its residences in 2017 that killed two people.A Global News and APTN investigation discovered the key players behind Connor Homes, Bob Connor and his son Sean, have amassed real-estate assets under their own names and through their companies estimated to be in excess of $10 million.The investigation found the company has also been accused of underreporting serious incidents in its homes, received poor inspection results, and recently surrendered its foster care licence.

jobs because of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the work environment.“It’s very hard to make the argument that you need to physically come to work five days a week,” said Sarah McVanel, chief recognition officer and founder of Greatness Magnified, a company that helps organizations retain top talent and combat burnout.McVanel says that COVID-19 presented Canadians with a different reality that changed the way people think about work.Grocery store, alcohol sales down in April as prices rose: Statistics CanadaAccording to a report released by Statistics Canada on May 24, the number of job vacancies at the beginning of April hit just over one million, up more than 40 per cent compared to last year amid a tight labour market pushing up wages and fuelling inflation concerns.The agency said on its website that employers in Canada were actively seeking to fill 1,001,100 vacant positions, up 23,300 from March of this year and a gain of 308,000 compared to April 2021.Vacancies in the health care and social assistance sectors reached a record high of 136,800, up five per cent from the peak of three months earlier and up 90.9 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic pummelled the economy, according to a report by Statistics Canada, which was released on May 21.

A gunman opened fire inside a busy shopping mall in the Danish capital on Sunday, killing several people and wounding several others, police said.

TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Blue Jays first base coach Mark Budzinski will be away from the team following the death of his eldest daughter, Julia.

Toronto Blue Jays following the death of his daughter.The team announced the passing of Julia Budzinski on Sunday morning.“The Budzinskis have been part of our Blue Jays family over the last four seasons. This devastating loss is felt by our entire organization and we grieve alongside Bud and his family,” said Ross Atkins, executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager of the Blue Jays.

COVID-19. French officials have “invited” or “recommended” people to go back to using face masks but stopped short of renewing restrictions that would scare visitors away or revive antigovernment protests.From Paris commuters to tourists on the French Riviera, many people seem to welcome the government’s light touch, while some worry that required prevention measures may be needed.Virus-related hospitalizations rose quickly in France over the past two weeks, with nearly 1,000 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized per day, according to government data.

KHARKIV, Ukraine — Wearing a military uniform marked with with both the Ukrainian and Canadian flags, Matthew McGill pleaded for more support to fight Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine, resulted in a fire in a residential building, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app early on Sunday.Three wounded people were taken to a hospital, he said.“Reasons for the incident are being investigated,” Gladkov said.

‘This is a nightmare’: Mom of missing Edmonton teenager Lila Smith A 41-year-old man is in custody and will be facing charges of child luring. Police said additional charges may follow as the investigation progresses.Several organizations were a part of the investigation, including ALERT (Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams), Northern Alberta ICE Unit, RCMP, Abbotsford Police, U.S.

Trump’s powers of persuasion.“Trump is unfit to be anywhere near power ever again,” the editorial board of the right-wing weekly Washington Examiner, a publication long deferential to the former president, wrote this week following Tuesday’s surprise hearing of the Jan. 6 committee.The hearing was called at the last minute to showcase the revelations of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who described in shocking _ if not surprising — detail Trump’s state of mind in the waning days and hours of his ill-fated presidency.That hearing “confirmed a damning portrayal of Trump as unstable, unmoored and absolutely heedless of his sworn duty to effectuate a peaceful transition of presidential power,” the editorial continued.“Republicans have far better options to lead the party in 2024.

pandemic started that travel restrictions have dropped and the world feels like it’s opening up again.So when it comes time to check out and the plane tickets are twice as expensive as you had budgeted, do you cancel the plans?Or do you just say whatever and click buy?For Canadians weighing decades-high inflation with pent-up demand for travel and other experiences after years of pandemic lockdowns, the answer seems to be landing on “buy now.” Searing hot inflation could shift Canada Day BBQs to ‘hotdogs instead of steaks’ But a surge in demand for consumer spending could make efforts to bring rampant inflation back into line even more of an uphill battle, experts say.TD Economics put out a report this week tracking spending data leading into the busy summer months.Real spending was up 15 per cent year-over-year in May, with TD suggesting that surging prices — inflation hit a nearly 40-year high of 7.7 per cent that month — had yet to take a bite out of consumer demand.TD said that spending has shifted from an appetite for goods, as Canadians sought to buy stuff for their homes during lockdown, to services, now that the weather is warming and their favourite experiences are opening back up.Demand for recreation and entertainment is leading the charge, with spending in this category 40 per cent higher (on a nominal basis, meaning not adjusted for inflation) compared with pre-pandemic levels.TD senior economist Leslie Preston, one of the report’s authors, tells Global News that after years of being denied the chance to go out and spend their money, the next few months will likely see Canadians keen to “scratch that itch.”“I do think there’s a lot of pent-up demand,” she says.“People made a lot of sacrifices for the two

Canada Day celebrations since before the COVID-19 pandemic began.Public events marking the holiday were put on hold due to the pandemic, but eased health restrictions have once again made large gatherings and celebrations possible.Not all cities returned to staging major events, however. Montreal, Vancouver and other jurisdictions opted not to hold parades, for example, citing financial issues related to the pandemic as well as safety concerns.Smaller street festivals and events focused on Indigenous reconciliation were held instead.

Canada Day in the nation’s capital after two years that saw Canadians marking the country’s birthday at home, or virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Tensions were high amid a significant police presence as thousands gathered in the streets of downtown Ottawa where residents continue to grapple with what police have acknowledged is “lingering trauma” from the convoy blockade earlier this year. As it happened: Canada Day celebrations, protests held across the country In normal years, Canada Day festivities draw thousands to the lawns and streets around Parliament Hill for concerts, fireworks and parties.

cruise ship that involved around 40 to 60 passengers.The U.S. Coast Guard was alerted to the brawl at 4 a.m.

The day before Canada Day, Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre strutted down an Ottawa street with a crowd of red and white adorned supporters trailing behind him.Alongside him, helping to lead the crowd of protesters who were pushing for a permanent end to vaccine mandates, was a man in a bright vest named James Topp. Here’s what to know as Ottawa braces for Canada Day protests amid ‘lingering trauma’ Poilievre and Topp can be heard chit-chatting about the veteran’s morning routine, referencing Topp’s recent march across Canada in protest of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.A topic they didn’t appear to talk about, based on circulating clips, was Topp’s appearance on far-right figurehead Jeremy Mackenzie’s podcast for well over an hour one month ago.

Doctors across the U.S. are reporting a surge in requests for vasectomies following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade legal precedent that once guaranteed the federal right to an abortion, according to The Washington Post.