Canada

TORONTO (AP) — Ontario’s premier retracted restrictions Saturday that banned playgrounds and allowed police to require anyone not at home to explain why they’re out after a backlash from police forces, health officials and the public.

The pandemic restrictions imposed by Canada’s most populous province immediately ran into opposition as police departments insisted they wouldn’t use new powers to randomly stop pedestrians or motorists and health experts complained the rules focus on outdoor activities rather than more dangerous indoor settings.

OTTAWA, April 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Canada will grant permanent residency to more than 90,000 foreign students and workers who helped treat patients during the pandemic, the immigration minister announced.

The program, in effect from May 6, is intended for workers with at least one year of work experience in health care or dozens of other sectors deemed essential — from grocery store cashiers and shelf stockers, to truck drivers and farm workers — as well as graduates who’ve completed a post-secondary degree within the last four years.

12 Apr 2021; MEMO: Members of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) have voted overwhelmingly to endorse sanctions on Israel during the party's 2021 convention.

OTTAWA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The rapid spread of more contagious COVID-19 variants is believed to have driven a devastating third wave in Canada.

As of Saturday afternoon, a total of 30,108 variant of concern cases have been reported across Canada, including 28,624 B.1.1.7 variants, 1,133 P.1 variants and 351 B.1.351 variants, according to CTV.

As of Saturday afternoon, Canada reported 5,986 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the cumulative total to 1,051,246, including 23,282 deaths, according to CTV.

OTTAWA, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Canada's tourism spending was cut 48.1 percent in 2020 and tourism gross domestic product (GDP) plunged 47.9 percent, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

Tourism was among the hardest-hit sectors of the Canadian economy in 2020 as a result of physical distancing measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The country's tourism spending in the first quarter of 2020 was stunted by the declaration of a global pandemic in mid-March and the accompanying physical distancing measures to prevent its spread.

TORONTO (AP) — Canada on Monday suspended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for people under age 55 following concerns it might be linked to rare blood clots.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization had recommended the pause for safety reasons and the Canadian provinces, which administer health in the country, announced the suspension Monday.

MONTREAL, March 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN is in negotiations with Beijing for a visit “without restrictions” to Xinjiang to see how the Uyghur minority is being treated, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

At least one million Uyghurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups have been held in camps in the northwestern region, according to US and Australian rights groups, which accuse Chinese authorities of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labor.

China has repeatedly bridled at criticism of its treatment of the group.

29 Mar 2021; MEMO: Amid growing concern over the weaponising of anti-Semitism by staunch advocates of the state of Israel, Jewish faculty members in Canadian universities are opposing the adoption of the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Jewish racism.

OTTAWA, Mar 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Canada is expected to see a cumulative total of almost one million COVID-19 cases next week, as the country’s virus variants continue spreading, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), said yesterday.

With variants now circulating widely, the PHAC said, the COVID-19 case number could rise to 12,000 a day, if Canadians maintain or increase the number of people they are in contact with daily.

As of yesterday afternoon, Canada reported a cumulative total of 955,030 cases and 22,830 deaths, according to CTV.

24 Mar 2021; MEMO: A Canadian judge has rejected Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou's request to add more evidence in her US extradition case, according to a ruling released on Monday, Reuters reports.

Meng, 49, was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 on a warrant from the United States, which alleges that she misled HSBC about Huawei's business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break US sanctions.