B.C.’s top doctor ends COVID-19 public health emergency
VICTORIA (CP) – British Columbia’s top doctor says she is ending the public health emergency declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says any remaining restrictions, including the vaccination requirement for health-care workers, are being rescinded.
Henry says after reviewing all the data she is confident the province has reached the point where there is no longer a need for the public health emergency and all requirements that remain can be lifted.
She says wastewater indicators and testing data show COVID-19 has levelled off and the number of people in intensive care and in hospitals is lower and stable.
Henry says the level of protection provided by vaccines and hybrid immunity is also helping to protect the population.
Health Minister Adrian Dix says health workers fired due to previous orders can apply to fill available positions, although they must provide their immune status for certain pathogens, including COVID-19.
Canada calls for Israeli response to ICJ advice on occupied Palestinian territory
OTTAWA (CP) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is calling for Israel to “respond substantively” to the top United Nations court’s recent advisory opinion that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and that it should end.
The court’s non-binding opinion released last week was an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago.
Trudeau responded to the court’s advice as part of a joint statement from Canada, Australia and New Zealand today, calling for the reversal of settlements in the West Bank.
The countries also renewed calls for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas that has ravaged the Gaza Strip.
They say in the statement that they stand behind a proposed deal outlined by United States President Joe Biden and endorsed by the UN Security Council.
Canada, Australia and New Zealand say Hamas must lay down its arms and release all Israeli hostages, and that they see no role for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza.
Crown must settle with First Nations for breaching Robinson treaties: Supreme Court
OTTAWA (CP) – The Crown dishonourably breached the Robinson Treaties and must negotiate a settlement with First Nations within six months, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.
The two treaties were signed in 1850, ceding a large swath of land in Ontario to the Crown in return for annual payments to the Anishinaabe of lakes Huron and Superior.
The treaties said the payments should increase over time, so long as the Crown did not incur a loss, but they have been frozen at $4 per person since 1875.
In a ruling Friday, the Supreme Court said the Ontario and Canadian governments had a mandatory obligation to raise that amount when economic circumstances warranted.
The top court ruled the Crown now has six months to negotiate a settlement with one of the groups, the Robinson Superior plaintiffs, and if a deal cannot be reached the Crown must set a remedy on its own.
The second group, the Robinson Huron plaintiffs, had already reached a negotiated settlement.
Work continues to clean second motor oil spill in river near Montreal
By: Maura Forrest
MONTREAL (CP) – Work continued Friday to clean up the second oil spill in two weeks in the St. Lawrence River off eastern Montreal.
The Quebec Environment Department has confirmed that the two spills in the Pointe-aux-Trembles district involved motor oil that flowed into the river from a city storm sewer. Officials are working with the City of Montreal to figure out how the oil ended up in the sewers.
The latest spill was discovered near a marina on Thursday, after heavy rainfall the night before. The Canadian Coast Guard deployed booms to contain the spill and a vacuum truck to recover the contaminated water. It also sent out a drone and a helicopter to assess the spill from above.
On Thursday afternoon, the coast guard transferred responsibility for the cleanup to the provincial government after it was confirmed that the contamination was from a source on land.
At least one injured seagull covered in oil was transported Thursday to a wildlife conservation centre.
People should stay inside, filter indoor air amid wildfire smoke, respirologist says
By: Nicole Ireland
(CP) – A Calgary respirologist is advising people to regularly check the outdoor air quality and stay inside as smoke from the Jasper wildfires blows into other parts of Alberta and possibly beyond.
Dr. Alex Chee says if the air quality is poor, people should close their windows and do what they can to filter the indoor air.
He recommends using air purifiers, but says air conditioners can also act as air filters, or people can turn their furnaces on to the fan setting.
He says it’s important air conditioners and furnaces have HEPA filters or filters with a rating of MERV 13.
Chee says if it’s not possible to purify the air at home, or if it’s too hot, another option is to head to an air-conditioned space such as a mall or library.
If people need to go outside, he suggests wearing N-95 masks to filter out some of the harmful particulate matter in wildfire smoke.
People with lung or heart conditions, children, seniors and pregnant women are at highest risk when the air quality is bad, Chee said.
McGill drops injunction case against pro-Palestinian camp after dismantling site
By: Sidhartha Banerjee
MONTREAL (CP) – McGill University withdrew its injunction request against a pro-Palestinian encampment on Thursday, a little more than two weeks after the school dismantled the collection of tents from its downtown Montreal campus.
In a brief statement, the university said it withdrew its request because it was “no longer necessary due to the dismantling of the camp on July 10.” On that date, McGill hired a private security firm to remove the encampment that had been on the school’s lower field since late April.
Protesters had fenced off an area and put up tents on April 27, following a wave of similar campus protests in the United States linked to the Israel-Hamas war. They demanded that McGill divest from companies they said were “complicit” in Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, and cut ties with Israeli institutions.
In mid-May, the university failed to secure an emergency court order to have police clear protesters, with a Quebec Superior Court judge finding that the school did not prove the situation at the encampment was sufficiently urgent to justify the measure.
