Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Canada’s top public health officer says the country is in a “very tight race” between getting the population vaccinated, and the increasing difficulty in containing new variants of COVID-19.
Dr. Theresa Tam said Friday that new federal modelling shows daily cases of COVID-19 are back on the rise as variants of the virus continue to spread. Numbers unveiled by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) shows that while the number of cases have fallen in Canadians aged 80 and older, incidence rates are highest among adults aged 20 to 39.
Tam says infections among younger, more mobile and social age groups pose a continuing risk for spread into high-risk populations, and community spread. She says daily cases have increased more than 30 per cent over the past two weeks, with an average of 29 deaths reported daily. She is particularly concerned about approaching religious holidays, and the potential for larger gatherings.
The Jewish holiday of Passover is this weekend while Easter follows a week later. Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, begins April 13.
“Every time we hit a holiday period, we’re always a bit anxious,” Tam said in a news conference. “Passover, Easter, Ramadan, [these are] times when families and churches and other gatherings typically occur.
“We want to make sure this does not happen right now. [It’s] not the time.”
Also Friday, Tam said the PHAC didn’t err last winter when it rated the risk of COVID-19 to the country as low, despite a contrary assessment by the federal Auditor-General.
Tam said the low-risk assessment was to show a moment in time rather than the potential risk the virus posed to Canadians.
On Thursday, Auditor-General Karen Hogan said the PHAC was unprepared for the pandemic. Her report found that the agency hadn’t updated its emergency response and management plans, didn’t adequately test its pandemic plans and used a risk-assessment tool that was not designed for a pandemic.
Hogan said the agency incorrectly assessed Canada’s risk as low until March 16, when it was changed to a high-risk ranking.
Tam responded Friday by saying the agency is now more focused on its forward-looking risk assessments, rather than only capturing the immediate risk posed by a disease.
“The domestic risk at that moment in time for the cases in Canada was relatively low,” Tam said.
Read more:
- New study casts doubt on time between COVID-19 vaccine doses
- Ontario to allow salons to reopen, gyms to offer outdoor fitness classes in COVID-19 lockdown regions
- B.C. opens way to social closeness at LTC homes while other provinces review isolation policies
- Montreal vaccine pilot project targeting parents of school-aged kids aims to stop variant spread in west-end hot spot
This is the daily Evening Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was sent to you as a forward, you can sign up for Evening Update and more than 20 more Globe newsletters here. If you like what you see, please share it with your friends.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Ontario doctor charged with murder
A doctor in eastern Ontario has been charged with one count of first-degree murder as provincial police investigate multiple suspicious deaths at the hospital where he works, according to The Canadian Press. Dr. Brian Nadler, who works at the Hawkesbury and District General Hospital, appeared in court on Friday. Provincial police say they took one person into custody after being called to the Hawkesbury and District General Hospital on Thursday evening. They say they’re investigating multiple suspicious deaths linked to the hospital, though they didn’t give an exact number.
Novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry dies at 84
The prolific writer who demythologized the American West with his unromantic depictions of life on the 19th-century frontier died Thursday. McMurtry wrote more than 30 novels and many books of essays, memoir and history. He also wrote more than 30 screenplays, including the one for Brokeback Mountain (written with his long-time collaborator Diana Ossana), for which he won an Academy Award in 2006.
Teck subsidiary fined $60-million for contaminating B.C. rivers
Teck Coal pleaded guilty Friday to two charges of releasing selenium and calcite into the Elk and Fording rivers between January and December, 2012. A federal prosecutor said the fines break down to $80,000 a day for each offence, and added that it was the largest penalty every assessed under the Fisheries Act.
More tugs on the way to Suez Canal
The Suez Canal stepped up efforts on Friday to free a stuck mega vessel, after an earlier attempt failed to end a blockage that has lifted shipping rates for fuel tankers and scrambled global supply chains. Shipping rates for oil product tankers have nearly doubled after the 400-metre-long Ever Given ran aground Tuesday. Efforts to free it may take weeks and be complicated by unstable weather.
MARKET WATCH
Canada’s main stock index moved higher to end a relatively flat as week sectors that rely on the economic reopening offset continued losses in technology.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 101.48 points to 18,752.58.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 453.40 points at 33,072.88. The S&P 500 index was up 65.02 points at 3,974.54, while the Nasdaq composite was up 161.04 points at 13,138.72.
The Canadian dollar traded for 79.49 cents US compared with 79.33 cents US on Thursday. - CP
Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com. Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop.
TALKING POINTS
The real estate game in big cities is broken. Young would-be buyers are better off not playing
“But knowing what I know now about the total cost of home ownership – which includes the price of a new roof, parging repairs, property and land transfer taxes, emergency water heater maintenance, a plumber’s hourly rate, the cost to remove a family of skunks from under a backyard shed and the reliability of a furnace that is old enough to drink in the United States – I would probably look elsewhere if I was hoping to enter the market for the first time in 2021.” - Robyn Urback
A sloppy approach to Xi Jinping’s China would put more than a million Canadians at risk
“Our habit of mixing up our frustration with the regime that has controlled China for 71 years with a group of people who have been integral to the fabric of Canada since its founding has put more than a million Canadians of Chinese ethnicity at risk. We need to be more precise – and more careful.” - Doug Saunders
No, Quebec is not Canada’s Alabama
“Recognizing that institutions created by and for francophone Quebeckers might not be very well-equipped to ensure equitable treatment for racialized and Indigenous Quebeckers should not be that hard. It would be a first step to righting what is an obvious injustice, and, maybe, silencing attention-seekers on Twitter.” - Konrad Yakabuski
LIVING BETTER
Azamit wears a dress by Unttld with Pierre Hardy sandals. Her jewellery is by LLY Atelier.Royal Gilbert/The Globe and Mail
The Style Hustle: Canada’s best dressed 2021
COVID-19 has revealed the resiliency and creativity of Canada’s fashion, beauty and design entrepreneurs. So, The Globe is celebrating this group in the 2021 edition of its annual Canada’s Best Dressed List. From the hair salon to the optician’s boutique, they prove that dressing remotely still allows you to connect through your wardrobe.
TODAY’S LONG READ
When the producers of Kim’s Convenience broke news that CBC’s immigrant family comedy would be concluding its run, a year earlier than expected, fans were outraged, heartbroken and nonplussed.
Since then, the questions kept coming – from fans, from the Asian-Canadian community, which had taken special pride in the show’s success and its commitment to represent them, from members of the Canadian TV industry.
As Simon Houpt writes, “how could Canada’s public broadcaster let its first Asian-centred sitcom simply close up shop?”
It turns out that the story is at once simple and complex. It’s about the often gruelling realities of the Canadian TV machine. But it also speaks to our current age of racial reckoning, when a half-hour sitcom becomes freighted with greater social import than it was ever designed to bear.
Read Simon’s full story here.
Evening Update is presented by Rob Gilroy. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.