Good evening, let’s start with today’s top coronavirus stories:
Ottawa pledges $77-million to protect workers as part of food industry aid package
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ottawa is pledging $77-million in funding to help food-processors outfit their workers with personal protective equipment and adapt their plants to allow for proper physical distancing.
It’s part of a larger, $252-million package to assist the agriculture and food industries during the coronavirus pandemic, including money for beef and pork producers holding animals they can’t sell, a credit program for the dairy industry and a $50-million fund to buy perishable food and send it to groups such as food banks.
The move comes one day after Cargill reopened its High River, Alta., beef slaughterhouse – the site of Canada’s single largest outbreak of COVID-19. Trudeau said that while workplace safety falls under provincial jurisdiction, Ottawa is stepping in to help keep employees healthy and make sure grocery stores remain stocked.
Read more: On Sunday, Trudeau announced an investment in B.C. firm AbCellera Biologics to support its work in discovering antibodies could be used to fight COVID-19. Read more here about the company and what it does.
Canada lags other countries in releasing real-time mortality data
Canada is behind other countries in releasing mortality data for 2020, which health experts say puts it at a disadvantage in detecting trends that could improve the response to COVID-19.
While federal and provincial governments are tracking confirmed COVID-19 deaths daily, they haven’t released the overall number of deaths in Canada this year. Experts say that information is needed to help determine the number of unconfirmed coronavirus deaths and whether there are large numbers of deaths indirectly related to the disease.
Separately, Ontario’s Fire Marshal says there has been a 65-per cent increase in fire deaths so far this year as COVID-19 measures force many people to stay home and do more home cooking.
Canada’s trade gap swells as COVID-19 shutdowns, sinking energy prices take a toll
Canada’s trade statistics for March show the effects of the pandemic shutdowns on both exports and imports, despite efforts to assure the continued flow of goods across the Canada-U.S. border.
Statistics Canada says exports dropped 4.7 per cent in March from February, battered by plunging oil prices and disruptions to auto-sector supply chains, while imports fell 3.5 per cent. The merchandise trade deficit rose to $1.4-billion in March from $894-million in February.
Those numbers were improved by a slumping Canadian dollar. Statscan said that when calculated in U.S.-dollar terms, goods exports fell 9.1 per cent and imports dropped 8.1 per cent.
On the international front: Britain has overtaken Italy to report the highest official death toll from the new coronavirus in Europe at 32,313, new figures show. Only the United States, with a population nearly five times greater, has more confirmed fatalities from the virus at about 70,000.
Meanwhile, French scientists say they may have identified a possible case of the coronavirus dating back to December – about a month before the first cases were officially confirmed in Europe.
Get answers to your reopening questions: Join health columnist André Picard and senior audience editor Madeleine White on the Globe’s Instagram channel for a livestream Q&A this Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET. They will explore what we know about reopening, and how it will affect your life. You can submit your questions now by e-mail to audience@globeandmail.com.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
SNC-Lavalin chairman stepping down: Kevin Lynch, the former top federal bureaucrat who lobbied the government on behalf of SNC-Lavalin, is stepping down as the company’s chairman and will leave its board later this year once a successor is named.
Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN off the air: A Philippine government agency has ordered the country’s leading broadcast network, ABS-CBN, which President Rodrigo Duterte has targeted for its critical news coverage, to halt operations after its congressional franchise expired.
MARKET WATCH
North American stocks gained today as oil prices surged and many countries and U.S. states eased coronavirus-related restrictions to boost economic recovery.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 133.30 points or 0.56 per cent to 23,883.09 points, the S&P 500 rose 25.70 points or 0.90 per cent to 2,868.44, and the Nasdaq Composite added 98.41 points or 1.13 per cent to end at 8,809.12.
Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 66.52 points or 0.45 per cent to 14,811.56.
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TALKING POINTS
Canada’s ‘gun ban’ is not what the government says it is
“I point all of this out not as someone who has any interest in guns or particularly understands their appeal, but as someone who doesn’t like governments seizing upon knowledge gaps in the population to earn political clout.” - Robyn Urback
U.S.-China schism brings Cold War II closer than ever
“The combination of the pandemic and political demands indeed threatens to turn trade and tech tensions with China into a drawn-out confrontation for superiority rivalling the U.S.-Soviet cold war. Given that China is no economic weakling like the Soviets, the outcome would be far less certain.” - Lawrence Martin
LIVING BETTER
If you’re physical distancing at home with a glass of wine, why not use it as a learning opportunity? The Globe’s Christopher Waters highlights four wine-related podcasts that range from the educational to the entertaining. You can learn about winemaking, explore wine regions or enjoy a glass (or two) with guests such as chef Marco Pierre White or singer Pink. Sign up here to get the Good Taste newsletter delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.
TODAY’S LONG READ
'I just don’t want them to be forgotten’: Nova Scotia communities memorialize the 22 shooting victims
Sisters Darcy Dobson, Molly O'Brien, Michaella O'Brien and Katie Devine arrange flowers and painted rocks left by mourners at the vigil to their mother, Heather O'Brien, where the nurse was killed by a gunman along the highway in Debert, N.S. in April. (Photo by Darren Calabrese for The Globe and Mail)Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
It had become tradition in recent years for Heather O’Brien’s daughters to give her gift certificates for the local garden centre each Mother’s Day. Her back deck in Masstown, N.S., was a floral sanctuary.
But this year, as her six children and two stepchildren mourn the loss of their mother, they are the ones planting flowers, in her memory, on the side of the road in Debert, N.S., where the 55-year-old took her last breath.
As the homemade cards fade and bouquets of flowers wilt at roadside memorials for the 22 people killed in the worst gun massacre in Canadian history, families and community members are finding more long-lasting ways to pay tribute to the victims.
For O’Brien’s loved ones, that’s a raised garden with a heart-shaped rock at the centre, surrounded by planted purple pansies, hyacinths and tulips. In the midst of their own grief, the family has also planted a second heart-shaped garden, about 100 metres away, in memory of Kristen Beaton, a fellow nurse who was also killed on that road in the shooting on April 19. Read Lindsay Jones and Molly Hayes’s full story here.
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