It's too bad that no one in the country gets this:
Perhaps instead we should attend to the other, more troubling phrase, her characterization of COVID-19 as a “political opportunity.” It’s troubling for two reasons. This plague has brought death and vast anxiety to very, very many people. It is, to be most gentle, in any context, more than jarring for a leading public figure to characterize it as a “political opportunity.”
To those who follow politics it immediately calls to mind that crass attitude of mind of Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief-of-staff, when he declared, with a super abundance of cynicism “never let a crisis go to waste.”
**
It was in the power of the federal government to contain the current wave of the pandemic, fuelled as it is by more contagious variants, through border controls or more timely vaccine procurement. But you won’t hear any contrition from the prime minister. When asked during question period Tuesday about his government’s slow vaccine rollout, Justin Trudeau deflected and said the “facts” are that health restrictions are what are needed to blunt the spread of COVID-19. In other words, take it up with the provinces.
Public health measures are indeed needed, and, excepting Atlantic Canada, the provinces’ execution on this front have ranged from barely useful to negligent, but that doesn’t absolve the federal government of its very real failures. ...
As for Canada, she says, “we now have a huge problem with variants that are draining government resources far more, that constitute a public health emergency, and that are clearly linked to travel.”
So, yes, the provinces failed to control the spread of the virus, and failed to use prior shutdowns to build up testing and tracing capacity, but this wave has the potential to become so much worse because of the variants the federal government failed to keep out.
Indeed:
Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu says she’s confident of this country’s pandemic border protections, even as Canada deals with spikes of infected passengers arriving daily from world hot spots.
And Hajdu remained cool to restricting Canada’s numerous daily flights from COVID-wracked India, where a devastating second wave has coincided with a new “double-mutant” variant. ...
So far this month, 33 flights from Delhi carried COVID-positive passengers, according Health Canada.
That’s out of 112 international arrivals carrying infected passengers, despite assurances that Canada’s border protections are among the strongest in the world.
**
Canada has dropped specific screening requirements for travellers arriving from Brazil, measures aimed at reducing the spread of a highly contagious variant of COVID-19 that is now spreading rapidly throughout Western Canada.
The change is taking place as the B.C. government raises the alarm about travellers circumventing the rules imposed by Ottawa for all international arrivals travelling by air. Premier John Horgan said his government may impose travel restrictions unilaterally, after learning that more than 100 passengers arriving at Vancouver International Airport have refused to quarantine as required by Ottawa since Feb. 22. “We haven’t taken travel restrictions off the board, quite frankly.”
The variants of concern spread more rapidly and can cause a more severe case of COVID-19. In particular, the P.1 variant, first associated with Brazil, may be able to re-infect people who have already had the virus, and “current treatments and vaccines may not work as well on cases of this variant,” according to the BC Centre for Disease Control.
This week B.C. began to cancel scheduled surgeries as the variants of concern drive caseloads to record levels. On Wednesday, the Alberta government announced that Calgary schools are shifting to at-home learning for Grades 7 to 12 because of rising COVID-19 cases among school-aged residents.
The enhanced screening measures for people who have been in Brazil were implemented on March 31. The government removed references to the measures from the federal government’s travel health notices late on Tuesday. The Public Health Agency of Canada also deleted a social media post that it had only published on Tuesday, which highlighted the enhanced screening for people who had been in Brazil.
The Prime Minister says he's supportive of provinces and territories closing their borders in order to protect their residents from the spread of COVID-19.
No wonder the Americans and the Japanese are avoiding us.
Also:
The Department of Public Works paid a multi-million dollar cash advance to a federal contractor for pandemic test kits that were never delivered, the Commons government operations learned yesterday. Spartan Bioscience Inc. filed for bankruptcy court protection April 6: “Did we buy it based on the belief it was going to work and we were sold snake oil?”
**
Health Minister Patricia Hajdu’s department yesterday did not comment on disclosures it spent the equivalent of more than $8,000 per traveler given free hotel stays, meals and medical care at public expense. Cabinet halted the free room and board quarantine program February 22: “They have stepped up.”
**
Exploiting migrants - it's the Canadian way!:
Canada is offering permanent residency to around 90,000 foreign students and workers in jobs as diverse as plumbing and cleaning, as it steps up efforts to meet an annual immigration target that has helped drive economic growth in recent years.
Canada has welcomed 70,000 new permanent residents so far this year, according to official numbers provided to Reuters, proportionally well short of the government's 2021 goal of 401,000. Three-quarters of those 70,000 were already living in the country.
Apparently, the high unemployment rate in this country doesn't translate into people willing to do grimy work, according the government, anyway. That's what foreigners are for.
Don't point fingers at me. The government is doing this to migrants.
**
Get jabbed, you flat-earther anti-vaxxer!:
Ten New Brunswickers have had "serious" reactions after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, as of April 3, says the Department of Health.
Nearly 105,000 people had received at least one dose by that time, according to the New Brunswick COVID-19 dashboard.
**
Now is definitely a time to re-think how we educate and train students and workers, particularly what methods work and how we adapt people to different learning situations (or if it is even possible):
Lana Parker, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor, said she does not believe online can replace in-person learning, arguing that schools offer a complex, relationship-oriented learning and social environment.
“We’ve been witness to what’s been happening with online schooling in an emergency context for the last year. And certainly, I think our teachers have done exceptionally well to pivot to online school and offer students the best interactive environment that they can. But we’ve also seen that there are many shortcomings and harms with this continued online situation for students.”
Last month, the report from the Globe and Mail said the Ontario government is allegedly looking at the option of making remote learning a permanent part of the public school system. The proposal said it is not a mandate but a choice for families.
Students aren't cats. They don't just land on their feet.
Students aren't often inculcated at home with a work ethic that has them study independently nor are curricula developed at a pace and fitness that prepares students for the market-place. We certainly aren't keeping in mind the individual temperament of students, their ability to learn and the willingness to reward or admonish according to ability and output. It's all about creating puppy-mills and putting on brave faces. What does it matter if spelling is no longer emphasised and the result is a semi-literate culture at best? Someone got paid, right? What does it matter if a good student is never rewarded but a poor student is? What about independent learners and those who need extra help? Are we willing to keep throwing the academic spaghetti until something sticks?
No comments:
Post a Comment