Two more poultry processing plants in British Columbia say they have workers who have tested positive for COVID-19. Sofina Foods Inc. in Port Coquitlam and Fraser Valley Specialty Poultry in Chilliwack say each of their facilities has one worker who has tested positive.
While researchers across the planet race to find a vaccine for COVID-19, a new poll suggests Canadians are divided over whether getting it should be mandatory or voluntary — setting up a potentially prickly public health debate if a vaccine becomes available. The federal government has committed tens of millions of dollars to help find or create a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness that has infected at least 48,000 Canadians and killed more than 2,700.
Canada's national police force wants a digital tool to harvest data from a sweeping variety of online sources, including the darkest reaches of the internet, to provide early information on threats such as disease outbreaks and mass shootings. The software would allow an RCMP officer to quickly mine data about a person's internet activities, from an emoji posting on Facebook to an illicit firearm purchase on the so-called darknet.
Canada's first-ever virtual House of Commons kicked off this afternoon with almost 90 per cent of MPs dialed in to start. The House of Commons special committee on COVID-19 is meeting via videoconference this afternoon. Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said in his opening statement that he could see that 297 of the 338 MPs were online at that moment.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his mother was doing fine Tuesday after a fire at her downtown Montreal apartment sent her to hospital. Margaret Trudeau, 71, was transported to hospital after the fire that broke out on the patio of the building just before midnight Monday.
Thousands more people are expected to contract COVID-19 and hundreds will likely die in the coming week, according to government projections, despite the progress the country has made in fighting the pandemic. Canada's case rate is now doubling every 16 days rather than three to five days seen about three weeks ago, Dr. Theresa Tam, the country's top public health officer, said on Thursday.